Huck, Glowacki, Tarver, Cunningham Fight Tonight In Newark

One Germany’s biggest stars of the ring comes to fight in America for the first time as WBO cruiserweight champ Marco Huck headlines the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.

Huck, 38-2-1 (26), squares off against undefeated Pole Krzysztof Glowacki, 24-0 (15), and the 30 year old Berlin resident will put his belt at risk for the 14th occasion.

29 year old southpaw Glowacki has won the WBO European/Intercontinental and Polish titles but has never gone above a Continental level of competition not fought outside of his homeland.

This bout is designed for Huck to look good in front of an American audience, which will likely occur given Glowacki’s inexperience at world level in terms of opposition faced and handling the high profile media spotlight.

This also could be Huck’s final appearance in the cruiser division after 11 years at the weight, which could also explain the appearance of the chief support bout on the bill: Steve Cunningham vs. Antonio Tarver at heavyweight, with Huck probably penciled in to face the winner next year in the same venue.

Huck made one previous appearance at heavyweight, giving the WBA champ at the time, Alexander Povetkin, a very hard time in 2012 on the way to losing a somewhat controversial majority decision.

But Huck also gets hit a lot in his bouts and after 41 contests, could have left it too late to hope to compete against the reigning champs at heavyweight, Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder.

Cunningham vs. Tarver should be an interesting contest but probably not a thriller as both fighters are counter-punchers who don’t like to lead.

Cunningham, who is a natural cruiserweight, is the bigger man here as Tarver is a natural light heavyweight and Cunningham, a two-time IBF cruiserweight king, has been in eight world title bouts while Tarver, a former IBF/WBC/WBA light heavy champ is a veteran of six world title contests.

One big advantage that Cunningham should enjoy is that of “youth” as he’s “only” 39 while Tarver is 46 years of age.

As a heavyweight, Cunningham has gone 4-3 (1), defeating Amir Mansour, Manuel Quezada, Jason Gavern and Natu Visinia while losing to Tomasz Adamek, Tyson Fury and Vyacheslav Glazkov.

Against Adamek and Glazkov, Cunningham was controversially edged on the cards while he was stopped by Fury, who canvassed in the second round, after being possibly fouled. Tarver’s record at heavyweight reads 3-0 (2) with victories over Johnathan Banks, Nagy Aguilera and Mike Sheppard.

Weighing in at 217 pounds yesterday, Tarver is 42 pounds above his prime fighting weight while Cunningham at 204 is basically still at his prime poundage.

Cunningham is more accomplished at the higher weight, the fitter and younger man while Tarver is still a very crafty southpaw who can legitimately punch.

Tarver will have the advantage of being able to win the fight with one punch while Cunningham will have to keep moving the entire contest as he doesn’t have the slugging power to keep Tarver off if the action goes on the inside.

Cunningham will likely try to set a face pace to wear down Tarver, who likes a measured tempo, and the boxer who can enforce their preferred workrate will probably come out the victor.