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WBO cruiser kingpin Marco Huck solidified his hold on the 200 pound title last night at Munich’s Olympia-Eissportszentrum, engaging in a competitive bout before finishing off challenger Hugo Hernan Garay.
Former WBA light heavy titlist Garay came to fight and was using his quickness advantage from the start, landing counter combinations after slipping Huck’s stand-off jab.
But Huck asserted his strength and power early on, coming forward with a two-fisted barrage that drove Garay to the canvas mid-way through the first round.
Huck was able to keep Garay at a distance where he could work the jab but the challenger managed to dart inside often and score with head and body combinations, although he was wild and sloppy at times.
Whenever it seemed Garay might be controlling the action, Huck would come forward to belt the challenger with hard left hooks and right hands that reset the physical space between the two.
Garay had a good moments as Huck went defensive, the champion allowing himself to be driven to the ropes, absorbing good punches that produced a bloody nose.
Huck coasted like this during the middle rounds, emerging from his shell to punish his Argentine antagonist with booming efforts whenever he tired of getting punched.
The pattern continued as Garay repeatedly backed up his larger rival and began a pattern of getting in good uppercuts.
Huck went on sustained bombing runs in the seventh and eighth but seemed to lack the energy to keep the drives going and Garay would always come right back.
The ninth saw an already exhausted Huck was getting outboxed by the quickly tiring Garay, who landed a few that clearly shook the champion up.
In the tenth Huck used the jab to regain distance and managed to clip Garay with a good uppercut. As the challenger retreated, Huck surged forward to get in two heavy right hands and a left hook before using his body to slam a falling Garay into the ropes.
Garay fell to the canvas and rather than making a determined effort to get up in time, the frustrated challenger appeared to be complaining to referee Luis Pabon, who counted Garay out at 1:10 of the tenth frame.
Having now made his seventh WBO defense, Huck improves to 33-1 (24), however, this is the second straight bout in which he has been outboxed and pushed around by a smaller, more determined opponent.
If Huck is to win any lucrative potential unification matches he’ll have to produce much more focused performances and avoid point deductions, as he earned in the third round of the Garay contest.
Garay falls to 34-6 (18), now having lost three of his last five bouts over the past two years.
Chief support bout saw Eduard Gutknecht, 22-1 (9), continue his successful reign as European light heavy champ by outpointing Lorenzo Di Giacomo, 41-5-1 (18), over twelve.
