By Jim Dower: Undefeated #1 WBC Mairis Briedis (21-0, 18 KOs) and #2 WBC Marcu Huck (40-3-1, 27 KOs) both weighed in successfully for the World Boxing Council’s mandated 30-day weight check on Thursday for their fight on April 1 in Westfalenhalle, Dortmund, Germany. Huck weighed in at 210.9 pounds, while Briedis weighed in at 208.9 lbs.
Huck and Briedis will be fighting for the WBC interim cruiserweight title. However, the winner of the clash could very well be crowned the WBC cruiserweight champion if the current WBC champion Tony Bellew decides to vacate the belt and remain at heavyweight.
Bellew is fighting former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye this Saturday night in a fight in the heavyweight division. The WBC is allowing Bellew to freeze his WBC cruiserweight title temporarily so that he can fight Haye in a business type of fight.
If Bellew loses to Haye, which many boxing fans and writers believe will be the case, then it’s thought that he’ll move back down to cruiserweight to defend his WBC title against the winner of the Briedis-Huck fight. If Bellew beats Haye, then he might stay at heavyweight and work towards a possible title shot against IBF champion Anthony Joshua, who is in the same promotional stable as him with Matchroom Sport.
The venue for the Huck-Briedis fight favors the 32-year-old Huck, as he’s been fighting in Germany his entire 13-year-old pro career, and he’s very hard to beat in that country once by a decision. Briedis, 32, is from Latvia, so he’ll be the visiting fighter. That doesn’t mean Briedis can’t win a decision over Huck, because he has been beaten before in his match against Alexander Povetkin in 2012. It wasn’t easy for Povetkin to get the decision, as he took a lot of heavy shots from a prime Huck. One judge scored the fight a draw, but he was overruled by the other two judges who had Povetkin winning the fight.
Huck is coming off of a harder than expected 12 round unanimous decision win over Dmytro Kucher last November in Hannover, Germany. Huck didn’t fight like the fighter he’d been in the best years of his career. Huck wasn’t throwing punches the way that he had when he was younger. He wasn’t attacking Kucher in prolonged spurts like he’d done earlier.
Briedis has the punching power and the boxing skills to make this a very tough fight for Huck. If Huck is going to slug with Briedis, then this could be a very hard fight for him.
Bellew hasn’t been very vocal about whether he plans on defending his WBC title or not. One would have to assume that he will if he gets knocked badly by Haye, but you never know.
Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn could get him a title shot for him against Joshua at some point. Hearn would have his hands on all the levers of the promotion for a Joshua-Bellew fight, and it would likely do well in the UK regardless of how badly Bellew loses to Haye on Saturday night. The money that Bellew can make at heavyweight is a lot more than the money he can make at cruiserweight. Huck and Briedis would be very tough fights for Bellew, because they’re a lot better fighters on paper than the eight fighters that Bellew has faced during his career at cruiserweight/