By Cliff Rold

The idea in sport of passing the torch to a new generation is well ingrained. Today’s heroes are tomorrow’s legends, replaced by younger models that can run as fast and sometimes faster, throw as hard and sometimes harder, then those who paved their way.

In boxing, passing the torch is more visceral. Torches aren’t passed so much as seized, sometimes by a single bright light, sometimes by a wave. Rocky Marciano and Larry Holmes dramatically ended the eras of Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. Oscar De La Hoya bludgeoned Julio Cesar Chavez. Terry Norris battered Ray Leonard.

In boxing’s two biggest weight classes, we are seeing a wave full of similar drama. In April, Anthony Joshua will try to put a nail in the coffin of the era Klitschko at heavyweight. Last year, we saw Murat Gassiev seize a title from veteran Denis Lebedev at 200 lbs.

This Saturday in Germany, we see the latest chapter in Cruiserweight: The Future?

One of the most consistent, and consistently entertaining, cruiserweights of the last decade is fighting for his fistic life. Germany’s Marco Huck (40-3-1, 27 KO) wore the WBO belt in the class to an almost record title reign. From 2009-15, he held on to the title 13 times and tied the mark for consecutive defenses of former WBO titlist Johnny Nelson along the way.

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He came up one short of having the record to himself, stopped in the eleventh round of a classic battle with Krzysztof Glowacki. Still only aged 32, Huck may have plenty of life left in him. This weekend, he has a chance to win the WBC belt in his class.

WBC titlist Tony Bellew, fresh off his win over David Haye, has been named champion emeritus and would surprise if he didn’t chase more heavyweight dollars from here forward. It’s the same as a vacancy.

Across the ring, Huck will face Latvian Mairis Briedis (21-0, 18 KO) in what looks like a fantastic battle. Briedis is the new face, despite being the same age as Huck. In this case, freshness is not about the calendar. It’s about the miles.

Huck has been a professional since 2004 and faced seven former titlists along with a grueling multi-fight rivalry with tough Ola Afolabi. To his credit, since the Glowacki loss, Huck has won two straight including a rivalry closing stoppage of Afolabi to capture the IBO world title.

Briedis, by contrast, has been a pro since only 2009, never faced a former titlist, and counts only a couple of former heavyweight title challengers as widely recognizable foes. Sometimes, that gap in experience matters.

Sometimes, being the hungry guy ready to notch some big wins matters more. Gassiev had never beaten a big name until he beat Lebedev. Glowacki had never beaten anyone the caliber of Huck until he did. Winning big always starts somewhere.

Briedis winning this week wouldn’t be as big as those other wins by Gassiev and Glowacki. Huck isn’t the top of the class any more. Consensus seems to be building around Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, who unseated Glowacki last year, but that’s not yet firmly proven.

No, what a Briedis win would do this weekend is firmly transfer cruiserweight into its next evolution. Throughout the division, there are undefeated talents waiting to take the place of the Huck’s and Lebdev’s for good.

Along with 23-year old IBF titlist Gassiev (24-0, 17 KO) and the 30-year old Usyk (11-0, 10 KO), there is 31-year old Cuban Yunier Dorticos. Dorticos won the interim WBA belt with a brutal victory over Youri Kalenga last year. By way of boxing oddity, Lebedev kept the WBA title while losing the IBF belt to Gassiev last year. The WBA belt wasn’t at stake and Lebedev has possible mandatories with Dorticos and WBA sub-‘world’ champion Beibut Shumenov. If and when Dorticos gets his shot at Lebedev, he will be in a position similar to Briedis this weekend, trying to eliminate one of the old names just slightly removed from the end of a title run.

Briedis would fit in well with Gassiev, Usyk, and Dorticos as a new foursome to infuse life into what has remained a lively class for most of 21st century. While heavyweight has often lacked for drama until an explosion of recent drama, cruiserweight has consistently delivered.

Part of that has been its ability to reload. There has been a fluid transfer between the Jean Marc Mormeck-O’Neill Bell wars, the reigns of David Haye, Tomasz Adamek, Steve Cunningham, and Huck up to now. It’s certain that Huck would like to stem the passage of time just as much as Briedis would like to hasten it.

That should make for a hell of a fight. Will it make for further torch passing? That will be decided in the ring.          

    

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com