By Mark Vester
In a very impressive performance, IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (21-1, 11KOs) came from behind to stop unbeaten Marco Huck (19-1, 14KOs) in the twelfth and final round of their championshiop bout before thousands of German fans at the Seidensticker Halle in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
Cunningham appeared to have a lot of problems early on with Huck's power. Huck pushed him back to the ropes and threw combinations to win a lot of the early rounds. Cunningham would often execute a nice jab, but there were few occasions when he followed up with anything else behind that jab.
On the inside, Huck would have trouble with Cunningham doing the smart thing by targeting the body and landing uppercuts up the middle. Huck's hard right seemed to buckle Cunningham's knees in more than one round. Cunningham began to press the fight in the seventh round.
In the eleventh, both guys let it all hang out and exchanged power punches from close range and along the ropes. Huck got off with the harder and crisper punches, but Cunningham gave as good as he got.
In the final around, Cunningham was told by his corner to go for the knockout and he did exactly that. He got Huck in trouble with a quick combination and began busting up him all over the ring with continued power punches. As Cunningham began to batter a helpless Huck against the ropes, Huck's corner threw in the towel to save their fighter.
On the undercard;
Former champion Tomasz Adamek (33-1, 22KOs), in his second bout as a cruiserweight, won a unanimous eight-round decision over Josip Jalusic (8-9-1, 7KOs). The scores were 80-72 across the board.
