by James Slater – 25-year-old Marco Huck, the reigning WBO cruiserweight champion, sure is keeping himself busy. Huck, 28-1(21) fought four times last year, and it looks as though the Serbian-born German will match that activity rate here in 2010.
Next up for “Kap’n Huck,” according to a number of sources including FightNews, is a May 1st defence of his belt against crowd-pleasing former heavyweight Brian “The Beast” Minto.. Less than two months on from making relatively easy-looking work of Adam “Swamp Donkey” Richards, who he stopped inside 3-rounds back on march 13th, Huck will make the third defence of his title against the gutsy slugger from Butler, PA.
Minto, now aged 35 and 34-3(21) as a pro, is coming off an exciting, yet losing battle with the much bigger Chris Arreola; who TKO’d him in the 4th-round in December. Immediately following that loss, the very first stoppage loss of his pro career, Minto vowed to drop down in weight so he could, “fight guys his own size.” Now, in somewhat surprising news, Minto has landed this big fight.
Set to take place once again in Germany (the scene of Huck’s last eleven outings), the May 1st clash figures to be exciting; while it lasts at least. I say while it lasts because, though Minto has proven his ability up a weight and will naturally feel he will be the stronger man over Huck at a more comfortable weight of 200-pounds, the overall skills of the champion have been looking formidable recently. Fast approaching his peak, Huck is a vastly improved fighter from when he lost to Steve Cunningham.
Huck took Richards apart last time out, and a number of fans will likely expect him to do something similar to Minto, a guy who has never been all that hard to hit. Minto does figure to test Huck harder than “Swamp” did, however, and “The Beast” will have plenty of fans on his side, feeling he can grab the title. Either way, and whoever wins, this fight doesn’t look as though it has much chance of going the distance.
Huck’s critics will doubtless complain about this match-up, seeing as how Minto has done nothing to earn a WBO title shot at the new weight; but Huck must be applauded for keeping active. And though Minto will be making his cruiserweight debut, making it impossible for us to know how well he will be able to perform at 200-pounds, having boxed as high as 218 last time out, this fight is no obvious mismatch.
Minto can bang, he has a good chin, he has real fighting heart and with the fresh start the new weight class will give him he can be expected to enter this fight with utter belief that he will win it. Also, Minto has fought in Germany before, both winning and losing – therefore the experience will not faze him at all.
Fireworks can be expected in this fight, and Huck might just find himself being pushed harder and punched harder than he has been in a while. That said, the defending champion has to be looked at as a fairly big favourite to retain his belt.