By Jake Donovan
Some 35 years after Marvin Camel was crowned the first-ever cruiserweight champion, the division is now on the verge of celebrating a record-breaking title reign.
Marco Huck has spent the past 50 weeks tied with Johnny Nelson for the most consecutive successful title defenses in boxing history, while searching for the perfect moment to have the mark all to himself. That opportunity comes this weekend, doubling as his stateside debut as he heads to Newark, New Jersey for defense number 15 against unbeaten Krzysztof Glowacki.
“I’m very excited to defend my championship in the United States, it’s long been a goal of mine,” Huck (38-2-1, 26KOs) told BoxingScene.com in a recent interview. “I wanted this to happen much earlier in my career, but my former promoter (Sauerland Event) wasn’t able to provide that opportunity. I’m looking forward to doing so, now on my own.”
The recent split with longtime promoter Sauerland Event is part of why Huck has been out of the ring for nearly a year.
It wasn’t the best way to celebrate his record-tying title defense, which came last summer versus previously unbeaten Mirko Larghetti in Halle, Germany. The 12-round decision win was Huck’s 13th consecutive defense of the title he claimed in Aug. ’09 – in fact having celebrated five years as champion the night before the feat. Witnessing the event was the man with whom Huck shares the record – Johnny Nelson, seated ringside serving as part of the U.K. Sky Sports commentary team.
Nelson, 41 at the time, threatened to come out of retirement for a one-off bout with Huck, which would have made for a brilliant promotion but likely bad theatre. The fight never came to fruition (thankfully), nor did any other as Huck became a free agent and waited patiently for the right opportunity for his showdown with Glowacki, an undefeated mandatory challenger from Poland.
Rather than sharing a ring with Nelson, Huck will share the billing with the only fighter to defeat him as a cruiserweight – Steve Cunningham, who faces Antonio Tarver in the evening’s main event.
Cunningham lodged the only successful defense of his first reign as a cruiserweight champion with a 12th round stoppage win over Huck way back in Dec. ’07. The fight was a donnybrook, but with Huck eventually running out of steam and - despite a late rally – succumbing to the pressure of the more experienced Cunningham to fall short in his first title attempt.
“I was a kid at the time, 22 years old and still finding myself as a fighter, in and out of the ring,” Huck says of their clash nearly eight years ago. “It was a horrible time in my career, I was in dispute with my now-former promoter, and locked out of training camp for almost a month while trying to resolve. I respect all that Steve Cunningham has gone on to accomplish, but he wasn’t better than me then and he’s certainly not better now.”
Huck is unbeaten in 20 cruiserweight fights since that night, 14 of which have come with a major title at stake. His reign began in Aug. ’09 with a 12-round win over Victor Ramirez, an Argentine slugger who abruptly retired before returning late in 2013 and has since won seven straight. Included among the lot is an interim cruiserweight title win over Ola Afolabi, against whom Huck is 2-0-1 in title fights.
The six-year reign has come with its shares of ups and downs, including a number of disputed decisions. All three fights with Afolabi were close, as was his Dec. ’10 split decision nod over Denis Lebedev, yet another past victim who has gone on to capture a portion of the cruiserweight crown.
Ironically, the only loss on Huck’s record over that stretch came in a fight in which many believed he deserved a better fate. A Feb. ’12 challenge of then-unbeaten heavyweight titlist Alexander Povetkin saw Huck turn in one of the finest performances of his career, coming in his first ever fight at heavyweight, no less.
In the end, the Serbia-born, Germany-based boxer was forced to settle for a moral victory, coming up short in an unpopular majority decision in favor of Povetkin.
Whatever sympathy was gained from the night managed to dissolve in the span of his next two title defenses – a draw with Afolabi in their May ’12 rematch and a highly disputed 12-round win over Firat Arslan in their first fight later that November.
Huck has since managed much cleaner wins over both fighters, outpointing Afolabi in June ’13, and brutalizing Arslan in six one-sided rounds last January. By the time he got past Marghetti, there was much discussion as to whom should gain recognition as the best cruiserweight in the world. The best way to settle it would have been for Huck to have faced Yoan Pablo Hernandez, the lineal champion who fights under the Sauerland banner.
Theoretically, it would have been an easy fight to make, but boxing is never that simple. With Huck promotionally on his own and Hernandez off to Argentina to face Ramirez next month, it’s unlikely that such a fight happens anytime soon if ever at all.
It’s all the same to Huck, who feels there isn’t much left for him to prove other than making history.
“I have no doubt in my mind that I’m the best cruiserweight in the world,” Huck insists. “I’m going to prove it (this) weekend, when I defend my championship for the 14th time and set the world record.”
Should he win, the next move to be anticipated is one that has been typical of just about any other top cruiserweight in boxing history. Beginning with former undisputed champion Evander Holyfield – universally regarded as the greatest cruiserweight ever – moving up to rule the heavyweight division, fighters just one weight class north have fattened up in order to collect fatter paydays while in aspiration of greater glory.
The one-off shot at Povetkin was enough of a taste to convince Huck that adding just a few more pounds to his chiseled frame is a future reality. He was 209 ½ lbs. for his lone heavyweight fight, and certainly looked the part. While his focus remains on Glowacki and making an impression in the United States, the thought of one day taking on the likes of unbeaten titlist Deontay Wilder or even World heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko is too big a dream to ignore.
“I want to move back up at some point,” Huck admits. “Even right now, I don’t doubt that I can take out the bottom half of the Top 10 best heavyweights in the world. In time, I know I could be ready to take down the very best.”
Moving up a few pounds north would be in line with the all-too familiar history of the cruiserweight division. For now, the focus remains solely on making his own history, and doing so in a setting that he hopes to have serve as the backdrop for more big fights in the future.
“It means a great deal that this opportunity to defend the cruiserweight championship more often than any other fighter in history takes place in my first fight in the United States,” Huck said. “I don’t see this being a one-time deal. I believe my all-action style will go over well with the American boxing audience. My goal is to be as big of a star in the U.S. as I am in Europe.”
Entering the record books right out the gate isn’t a bad place at all to begin.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox