By Scott Gilfoid: Marco Huck (40-4-1, 27 KOs) says he isn’t retiring following his lopsided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Mairis Briedis (22-0, 18 KOs) last Saturday night in a fight for the vacant WBC cruiserweight title in Dortmund, Germany. Huck lost his IBO title in the fight, but there’s a question whether he could get the title back. Briedis reportedly didn’t pay the sanctioning fee for the IBO title, according to Fightnews.
Huck might try and get the title back. I’m not sure why he would still want the belt after losing the fight. It would be an odd situation for Huck to keep the IBO title at this point. Huck might be better off focusing on trying to win one of the other titles or winning the IBO title back in actual fight.
Huck was badly schooled by the faster, stronger and more technically sound Briedis for 12 rounds in losing by the scores 116-111, 117-110, and 118-109. You can argue that the judges were being very kind to Huck by scoring it as close as they did. I thought Briedis should have won every round of the fight. That’s how Boxing News 24 scored it. Huck says he going to win back his IBO strap.
“I’m too young to stop,” Huck said to the German news site BILD. “I’m a true warrior. We’ll get the title back.”
Huck is only 32, and that’s not old for the sport. However, what’s of concern is how unimpressive Huck has looked in his last 2 fights against Briedis and Dmytro Kucher. Huck isn’t fighting at the same level that we saw from him up through 2014. The last fight where Huck looked really good was against Mirko Larghetti back in 2014. After that fight, Huck was stopped in the 11th round by Krzysztof Glowacki in August 2015. Huck won his next fight against a past his best Ola Afolabi in February of 2016. Huck didn’t look like the same fierce guy that he’d been in the past.
That spark was gone. It might be a good time for Huck to bow out of boxing rather than stick around and wind up as just another one of the many contenders in the division. I think Huck’s days of being a world champion are done at this point. Briedis is too talented for him to ever beat him in my opinion, and I can’t see Huck beating the other cruiserweight champions Alexander Usyk, Murat Gassiev, Beibut Shumenov or Denis Lebedev.
Briedis reportedly suffered a broken rib in the fight with Huck.
What’s interesting is whether Tony Bellew will be coming back down to the cruiserweight division to challenge Briedis for his old WBC title. Bellew, 34, was recently made the Emeritus champion at cruiserweight by the World Boxing Council after suffering a hand injury in his win over David Haye last month. Bellew can fight for the WBC title any time he wants with him being the Emeritus champion. It’s thought that Bellew will possibly challenge for his old title after he faces one of the top heavyweight champions like Anthony Joshua. If Bellew fails to win that fight, which would seem likely, he would then move back down to cruiserweight to take on Briedis. I think it would be a crazy idea for Bellew to move back down to cruiserweight to face someone like Briedis or Alexander Usyk, because his chances of winning would be so small. Those are talented cruiserweights, and would likely be way too good for someone like Bellew to compete with. The money that Bellew would get facing those guys would probably be a lot less than he’d get if he stayed at heavyweight and fought someone. Bellew could probably absorb a knockout loss to Anthony Joshua, and then turn around and get another title shot straightaway. Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn might be able to make it happen. Look at Martin Murray. He’s promoted by Hearn, and he’s already fought for a world title 4 times and failed every time. I could see Bellew getting at least 2 shots at heavyweight titles if he stays in that division. Bellew obviously isn’t cut out to be a heavyweight, but that doesn’t mean he can’t get two quick paydays and perhaps a third in a rematch with David Haye.
Terence Crawford a possibility for future, says Errol Spence
The highly talented welterweight contender Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) says he’d be interested in facing light welterweight champion Terence Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) in the future after he moves up in weight to the 147 lb. division. Spence Jr. has a fight against IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) on May 27 at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. If Crawford moves up to the welterweight division in the near future, then a fight between them is a possibility. A lot of boxing fans would like to see that fight.
“Terence Crawford has got a lot of great skills. That would be a good fight at 147,” said Spence to esnewsreporting.com about him fighting Crawford. “I don’t think it’s going to happen right now, but it’ll happen down the road,” said Spence.
Crawford wants to unify all the belts at 140 before he moves up to welterweight. I think Crawford will do that quickly, perhaps by early 2018. The thing that could get in the way of a Spence vs. Crawford fight in the future is the politics in boxing. Spence is with a different promoter than Crawford, who is promoted by Top Rank. That might keep the fight from ever taking place. If Crawford wins the WBO welterweight title one of these days, then I see him staying in that lane defending the belt against fighters from Top Rank and against the contenders in the World Boxing Organization’s rankings.
As for as Kell Brook goes, Spence feels that he had no choice but to come back down to 147 rather than listening to his promoter Eddie Hearn to fight at junior middleweight. Spence says there was no one for Brook to fight at junior middleweight.
“He’s going to come down. He really has no one for him to fight,” said Spence about Brook having to come down to 147 due to him not having anyone to fight at 154 if he moves to that division like his promoter Eddie Hearn wants him to. Kell Brook is a good fighter. He’s got a lot of heart for coming back down to fight after his promoter told him not to. I respect him for that,” said Spence.
I think there are a lot of guys that Brook can fight at 154. Unfortunately, I don’t think Brook can beat those guys. Brook is a lot better at 147, because he’ll always have a weight advantage over most of his opposition in that division.
“I think it’s a good match-up,” said Danny Garcia to Fighthype.com about the Brook vs. Spence fight. “I think the timing favors Spence a little bit, because he just fought Triple G. All that weight he has to come back down, so we don’t know how he’s going to physically feel. We know his skills are going to be there, but when you fight a young, hungry fighter, you need to make sure you’re at the top of the game. I think it’s a 50-50 fight,” said Garcia.
“I don’t know,” said Garcia in response to a question of whether Brook is the same fighter after losing to Triple G. “I’d like to see him fight one more time, but it is what it is. He’s a champion and he wants to defend his title.