By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBO Marco Huck (40-3-1, 27 KOs) will be fighting the top rated #1 WBO Mairis Briedis (21-0, 18 KOs) on April 1 for the interim WBO cruiserweight title at the Dortmund Westfalenhalle in Germany. The winner of the Huck-Briedis fight will very likely be elevated to the full WBC cruiserweight champion in the near future if/when WBC champion Tony Bellew vacates his title to fight at heavyweight.
I think Bellew won’t bother coming back down to the cruiserweight division after his fight against David Haye on March 4. After Bellew gets a taste of the big cash in the heavyweight division, I see him staying in that weight class. That means the winner of the Huck-Briedis fight will be the new WBC cruiserweight champion.
The World Boxing Council is being extremely lenient with Bellew by letting him move up to heavyweight without stripping him of his cruiserweight title. Anyway, I don’t think it matters, because it’s likely that Bellew won’t come back down to risk his hide facing the winner of the Huck vs. Briedis fight.
It would be too dangerous for Bellew to face those guys in my opinion, because unlike the fighters that he’s been facing since he moved up to cruiserweight, Briedis and Huck can actually fight. I don’t think Bellew wants any part of those guys. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am. I see Bellew vacating his WBC title after his fight with Haye.
Huck, 32, is trying to rebuild his career following a 11th round knockout loss two years ago to Krzysztof Glowacki in August 2011. The good news is Huck has won his last two fights against Ola Afolabi and Dmytro Kucher. The bad thing is Huck looked terrible in the Kucher fight, and seemed to show that he’s starting to age.
The attacking style that Huck was known for in the past wasn’t there in that fights. That’s unfortunate, because Huck is going to need to be at his absolute best for him to defeat Briedis on April 1. I don’t care that the fight is taking place in Germany.
Huck is still going to need to be at his best, because Briedis will likely take the judges out of the equation by knocking Huck out. I don’t see this fight going to the cards. If Huck fights like he usually does, he’s going to get knocked out, because hell charge into one of Briedis’ big shots and wind up getting flattened. Huck has gotten away with fighting in a wild man type of style during his career. The reason he’s gotten away with that style is that most of his opposition has been nothing special. The few guys with talent that Huck has faced, Denis Lebedev, Steve Cunningham and Glowacki, all arguably beat him. Lebedev should have beaten him in my opinion in their fight in 2010, but Huck won by a controversial decision in Germany.
Huck is now facing a guy in Briedis that would have given him nightmares even in the prime of his career. I see the only way Huck wins this fight is if it goes to the scorecards, because I think Breidis is a much better fighter.