WBO King Huck Faces Afolabi In Erfurt

The stage is set tonight at Messehalle in Erfurt, Germany as Marco Huck returns from a trip to heavyweight to put his WBO cruiserweight crown up for grabs against former opponent Ola Afolabi.

Huck, 34-2 (25), is less than three months removed from very nearly unseating WBA heavyweight champ Alexander Povetkin, bossing the Russian around the ring before losing a majority decision, and will be making the eighth defense of his WBO belt.

Afolabi, 19-2-3 (9), will be looking to avenge his only loss since 2003 when he meets Huck, who won a hard fought 12 round decision over the Londoner when they clashed in 2009.

Since that time Afolabi has racked up five straight victories, capturing the WBO Intercontinental belt before stopping Valery Brudov in the fifth this past March to win the Interim WBO title.

Both fighters have improved over the last three years but it will be interesting to see of Huck still has the desire to achieve in the cruiser division after coming so close to capturing world honors at heavyweight.

If not, he’ll have a difficult time against Afolabi, who has been campaigning for this rematch for years.

Huck does well when he fights going forward and cannot afford any lapses in activity this evening, keeping Afolabi on the defensive and on the back foot.

Afolabi needs to use his height and reach advantages to keep Huck at bay while countering effectively to take away the champion’s confidence.

This should be Huck’s toughest test at 200 pounds since his 2010 split decision win against Denis Lebedev.

The undercard sees WBO super middle champ Robert Stieglitz, 41-2 (23), defending against seasoned Aussie Nadar Hamdan, 43-9-1 (18), while Alexander Dimitrenko, 32-1 (21), and Kubrat Pulev, 15-0 (7), tangle for the European and IBF International heavyweight crowns.