Marco Huck battles Dmytro Kucher tonight

BoxingNews24.com

By Allan Fox: Former WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (39-3-1, 27 KOs) will be in the ring tonight for a fight against the hard hitting Dmytro Kucher (24-1-1, 18 KOs) at the TUI Arena in Hannover, Germany. The Huck-Kucher fight is scheduled for 12. It should be an interesting fight to see how much Huck has left in the tank.

Huck, 32, will be defending his International Boxing Organization cruiserweight title that he won off of Ola Afolabi last February. The last time Huck fought. He beat Afolabi by a 10th round knockout in their fourth fight together.

Huck is ranked #2 WBC, and he needs a victory tonight to keep him in position for an eventual title shot against World Boxing Council champion Tony Bellew. Huck may need to wait a little while to get that title shot, because #1 WBC Mairis Briedis is ranked ahead of him, and is supposed to be getting a shot at Bellew at some point in the future.

Kucher has the power to give Huck a lot of problems in this fight. It’s going to be hard for Kucher to handle the power that Huck has going for him. Huck is someone that can be out-boxed, but he tends to overwhelm his opponents with his big power shots. When Huck’s fights do to the cards, he’s hard to beat. He’s usually fighting at home in Germany, and he’s almost impossible to beat by a decision when he’s over there. Huck has been involved in some controversial decision fights against Afolabi and Denis Lebedev that many boxing fans felt that he lost. That’s why it’s in Kucher’s best interest tonight to make sure the fight does not go to the scorecards.

Huck is on the downside of his boxing career. He’s taken a lot of punishment in his fights, and he’s now fighting in the era of Olesandr Usyk, a fighter that would likely out-box Huck with ease if/when that fight ever happens. However, there are guys in the division that Huck would still have a puncher’s chance of beating. One of them is Tony Bellew.

Another is Denis Lebedev. Huck might be able to beat those guys if he can fight them in the right place like Germany, and if he can land something big. Huck’s aggressive style of fighting leaves him open to getting hit a lot. Those guys would take advantage of Huck’s wide open defense.

Huck was stopped in the 11th round last year in August 2015 by southpaw Krzysztof Glowacki. In hindsight, Huck used the wrong approach for the Glowacki fight by choosing to slug with him. Huck almost got away with fighting that way, as he was ahead on the scorecards going into the 11th round, when he was dropped twice by Glowacki.

The fight was halted after the second knockdown. Huck had dropped Glowacki in the 6th. Surprisingly, Huck was able to take Glowacki’s shots through much of the fight, but he took some major head shots. It was clearly one of the hardest fights for Huck since his loss to Alexander Povetkin in 2012. Huck took a lot of punches that fight as well, but they weren’t as powerful looking as the ones that Glowacki was hitting him with.

#6 WBC Kucher probably wouldn’t have been seen as a real threat to beating Huck until recently with his 1st round knockout win over Enzo Maccarinelli last June. Kucher surprised a lot of boxing fans with that fast knockout win over Maccarinelli. The defeat was bad news for Maccarinelli’s once promising career, because it was his 7th knockout loss in the last eight years of his career. It was not good timing for Maccarinelli to lose that fight in that manner, given that he’d recently stopped Roy Jones Jr. in the 4th round in his previous fight in December 2015 in Moscow, Russia.

Kucher lost to Illunga Makabu by a 12 round majority decision three years earlier in 2013. However, Kucher came back from that loss to win three of his last four fights in beating Maccarinelli, Bobby Thomas Jr. and Galen Brown. Those are obviously not great fighters, but Kucher did the job on them and looked good in winning. Kucher fought to a 12 round draw against unbeaten Bilal Laggoune last year in October 2015. It was definitely a close fight, and you can argue that Kucher should have won. He fought Laggoune’s home country in Belgium. Kucher needed to do a little bit more for him to get the decision in fighting over there.

Huck might be able to walk through the best shots that Kucher throws tonight. He’s likely not going to hesitate to attack the Ukrainian fighter in order to land his own shots. Kucher will need to be smart to avoid Huck’s telegraphed attacks, because that’s his usual style of fighting. Huck stays on the outside to take rest breaks, and then he’ll charge forward to throw clubbing punches.

Glowacki was able to time Huck’s attacks to land hard left hands to the head. But many of the cruiserweights in the division are badly flawed fighters, and not skilled enough to expose Huck. Kucher has a lot of boxing skills. What’s not known is whether he has the chin to take Huck’s power.