By Jeff Aranow: WBO cruiserweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk (12-0, 10 KOs) weighed in at 199 pounds for his title defense against former WBO champion Marco Huck (40-4-1, 27 KOs) on Friday for their fight this Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the World Boxing Super Series at the Max-Schmeling-Halle, in Berlin, Germany.
(Photo credit: World Boxing Super Series)
The 32-year-old Huck, who is coming off of a 12 round unanimous decision loss to Mairis Briedis earlier this year on April 1, weighed in at 198 lbs. Huck is quite fortunate that he’s getting a second shot at winning a world title, as he probably should be earning his way to another title fight rather than having it given to him.
Huck is promising his fight with Usyk going to be a war. Huck is at the last chance saloon with his career. He looked terrible in losing to Briedis. Huck didn’t have the ability to get the better of Briedis when the two of them exchanged punches. Briedis was taking advantage of Huck’s tendency to attack in surges by nailing him with good shots. By the second half of the fight, Huck had completely stopped attacking Usyk. Huck looked mentally defeated.
The 2012 Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist Usyk comes into Saturday’s fight as the top seed in the WBSS tournament.
The World Boxing Super Series is a big deal for the cruiserweights and the super middleweights. The prize money was too good for many of them to resist.
Usyk is expected to have a lot of his boxing fans from Ukraine in the audience supporting him against Huck. It’s a good thing. Usyk will need some fans in the crowd supporting him in this fight, as Huck has won a number of fights during his career in Germany in which he should have arguably lost.
“I feel very good,” said Usyk. “I’m ready to impress the fans in Berlin and the people watching around the world.”
Usyk is coming off of the toughest fight of his 4-year pro career in a hard fought 12 round unanimous decision win over U.S 2012 Olympian Michael Hunter on April 8. That was a fight in which Usyk struggled with the high volume attacking style of Hunter, who adapted several times during the fight to the things that Usyk was doing inside the ring. In the end, it came down to Usyk having too much size for Hunter, and this enabled him to win the 12 round decision. Hunter exposed Usyk in a way with the performance. He showed that Usyk struggles against fighters that pressure him and throw a lot of punches. Whether there’s anybody in the World Boxing Super Series that has enough talent to take advantage of Usyk’s flaws is the big question.
“I can’t wait for the fight,” said Huck. “The training is over, the talk is over, now it is time to let our hands do the talking. I have a good feeling about this fight. Usyk will be in the biggest battle of his career and he should prepare for a war. A war he is going to lose,” said Huck.
It would be an incredible comeback for Huck if he defeats Usyk, because right now the German fighter is looking like he’s seen better days with his career. The last time Huck looked good was in his 6th round knockout win over Firat Arslan in their rematch on January 25, 2014. Since that fight, Huck has looked unimpressive in wins over Mirko Larghetti, Ola Afolabi and Dmytro Kucher. Huck was knocked out by Krzystof Glowacki in the 11th round on August 14, 2016.