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America’s IBF Cruiserweight Champion Steve Cunningham has fought most of his career on the road away from his hometown of Philadelphia and will have to do it one more time when he faces challenger Marco Huck tonight at the Seidensticker Halle in Bielefeld, Germany.
Cunningham, 20-1 (10), tipped the scales at just 192 lb yesterday, in keeping with the reedy champion’s thinner build while Huck weighed in much closer to the 200 lb cruiser limit at 198.
At just 23 years of age, Huck, 19-0 (14), will have the youth advantage over 31 year old Cunningham, but the champion will look to bring his greater ring experience into play, applying the wisdom learned during victories over Guillermo Jones, Kelvin Davis, Sebastiaan Rothmann and Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.
But will that experience be enough to keep Huck off? The oddsmakers don’t think so as Cunningham is a big underdog with the bookies going into tonight’s clash.
The German based Yugoslavian Huck is a surprisingly mature fighter for his age and knows when to be patient and when to go after an opponent as evidenced by a good win over previously unbeaten American based Russian Vadim Tokarev in May.
A year ago, the power and youth of “Captain” Huck (pronounced “Hook”) surprised Italy’s highly seasoned former European Champion Pietro Aurino, who disqualified himself out of the contest after only two rounds, and those abilities may spell trouble for Cunningham, who had difficulty over two bouts with Wlodarczyk, a man Huck reportedly triffled with during sparring for this IBF title fight.
Regardless of the outcome, the winner of this showdown will likely face the victor of the upcoming David Haye vs. Enzo Maccarinelli clash in March for all four major world titles at 200 lb.
