Coming off of a bad knockout loss, 31-year-old former WBO cruiserweight world champion Marco Huck (39-3-1, 27 KOs) was able to score a 10th round TKO win tonight over IBO cruiserweight champion Ola Afolabi (22-5-4, 11 KOs) at the Gerry Weber Stadium in Halle, Germany. The fight was stopped by referee Jack Reiss after the 10th round had ended.
He halted it because of Afolabi’s left eye being swollen shut. Huck had been hammering Afolabi with right hands to the eye from the very start of the fight. In the 1st round, Huck rammed his head accidentally into the face of Afolabi, and that obviously didn’t help Afolabi’s eye any.
Huck had a point deducted in the 9th for hitting Afolabi after the round had ended. The referee could have taken additional points away from Huck for various fouls that he committed but wasn’t called for. He connected with a lot of punches to the back of Afolabi’s head in the 8th round that had him looking hurt.
The referee could have stopped the action and taken points off, because there was more than one punch to the back of the head. These were really forceful punches, not the weak variety. Huck also threw some elbows in the fight. You can say they accidental elbows, but they looked like they didn’t do Afolabi any good getting hit with them.
This was Huck’s first fight since his knockout loss to Krzysztof Glowacki last year. Huck might not get a chance to avenge that loss with Glowacki the WBO champion unless he can get the fight before Glowacki fights #1 WBO Olesandr Usyk at some point in 2016, because that’s a fight that Usyk will likely win. Huck will have problems with Usyk because he’s every bit as good a puncher as Huck, but a much better boxer. There’s no comparison. Huck will be in deep water when/if he takes that fight.
