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Busy WBO cruiserweight king Marco Huck steps thru the ropes for the fourth time in less than a years’ time as he faces the challenge of South American veteran Hugo Hernan Garay on Saturday.
Huck, 32-1 (23), makes a rare appearance in Munich as the 26 year old is expected to sell out Olympia-Eissportzentrum for his clash with former WBA light heavy titlist Garay, 34-5 (18).
This will be the sixth WBO defense for Huck, who is coming off two tough bouts, a harder than expected scrap with unheralded Ran Nakash this past April and a narrow split decision victory against Denis Lebedev in December, 2010.
Going into his first world title contest in two years, Garay is stepping up a weight class against the younger, stronger and bigger punching Huck, which will no doubt turn out to be a tough assignment.
The 30 year old native of Tigre, Argentina lost two razor thin decisions to WBO lightweight champ Zsolt Erdei during 2004-2005 before capturing the WBA belt in 2008, retaining once before losing a close decision to Gabriel Campillo in 2009.
Garay’s comeback bout a year later ended is disaster as “Pigu” was stopped during the first round in Mexico by Chris Henry, providing the impetus for a move to cruiserweight, where Garay has won two bouts against lower level competition in Argentina.
For the challenger to lift the title in Munich on Saturday, he’ll have to back up the champion and outwork the sometimes sluggish Huck for all twelve rounds.
Garay is an aggressive fighter but lacked a concussive punch against higher level light heavyweights and it’s doubtful he’ll have the firepower to cause Huck to become defensive.
Huck will need to take command from the opening bell by going right after Garay, imposing his advantages and not allowing the challenger to gain in confidence as Nakash had done in Huck’s most recent fight.
It will be a major upset in the cruiserweight ranks of Huck is knocked off but the WBO champ must be diligent in his execution against Garay and ensure that he takes the lead in every round.
The undercard at Olympia-Eissportzentrum sees a European light heavyweight title clash between newly minted champ Eduard Gutknecht, 21-1 (9), and ex-two time European middleweight title challenger Lorenzo Di Giacomo, 41-4-1 (18).
Gutknecht operated at super middle for most of his career until losing a WBO title bid to Robert Stieglitz last year and since then has gone 3-0 at light heavy, most recently stopping Danny McIntosh for the European belt in May.
Di Giacomo turned pro as a welterweight and won EU and Italian titles at middleweight before losing European middleweight title clashes to Sebastian Sylvester in 2005 and Amin Asikainen in 2007.
In December, Di Giacomo fell short in a quest to unseat EU super middle strapholder Lolenga Mock and will be making his first appearance at light heavyweight.
Gutknecht is the favorite to retain his crown but must be careful against the more experienced crafty and durable Di Giacomo.
