by James Slater– It has been confirmed by Fightnews.com that Marco Huck, the reigning WBO cruiserweight champion, will make his next defence against Providence, Rhode Island’s Matt Godfrey. Huck’s promoter, the recently Hall of Fame-enshrined Wilfried Sauerland, informed German publication BILD that the fight will go ahead in Germany, on August 21st. 29-year-old Godfrey, 20-1(10), was set to face Steve “USS” Cunningham a short while back, for the vacant IBF 200-pound belt. However that fight fell through due to contractual issues, and Cunningham met and defeated Troy Ross instead. Now the man known as “Too Smooth” gets his title shot against the Serbian-born Huck.
Huck, one of the most active of elite level fighters today, will be making the fourth defence of his belt, and he will no doubt start out as a pretty big favourite to win what will be his 31st fight (just one loss thus far, to Cunningham, 22 of Huck’s wins coming the short route). It’s not that the challenger is in any way a bad fighter – Godfrey, a former amateur star, is a talented boxer – it’s simply that Huck will be fighting at home, he is at or about his peak right now and on a roll, and Godfrey has been somewhat inactive as of late. Add all this up, and a Huck win looks likely. But how severely will Godfrey test the champion in August?
Not having boxed since his September 2009 points win over Michael Simms ( a fight that saw Godfrey go down in the 1st-round), Godfrey may well be ring-rusty against “Kap’n'” Huck. Not a big puncher, Godfrey’s thing is slick boxing, and if he is not at his sharpest, he could be in trouble. A pro since May of 2004, “Too Smooth” has gotten himself good wins over decent names such as Emmanuel Nwodo (in a wild fight, in which Godfrey was put down before getting the 4th-round TKO win), Edward Gutierrez (W PTS10) and Shawn Hawk (W PTS 10), and he has also picked up the NABF belt along the way.
Godfrey’s sole loss came in a WBC title fight eliminator, when he fought Rudolf Kraj in Germany a couple of years ago. Dropping a fairly wide decision in his German debut, Godfrey will have to hope he can do better in Deutschland this time.
At bang on 6’0,” the challenger will be the shorter many by an inch-and-a-half, and this will be just one more obstacle he will have to overcome. Had he been more active recently and had he not suffered those two knockdowns, Godfrey would perhaps have been looked at as a far more dangerous proposition for Huck. As it is, the older man by four years may well look good in spurts (if he’s not nailed and stopped early, which is a possibility), he may well win some rounds with his boxing skill and he could even make Huck look a little clumsy at times – but eventually Huck will wear him down for the stoppage.
I take Huck to retain inside eight-rounds.