by David P. Greisman
When Marco Huck fought Krzysztof Glowacki back in August, he didn’t just lose his world title when Glowacki came off the canvas and came from behind on the scorecards to score a stunning technical knockout.
He also ended a streak of successful world title defenses at 13, with 12 wins and one draw, the same number that Johnny Nelson had during his own time as cruiserweight titleholder.
Nelson was glad not to see his record fall — not necessarily because the record was his, but rather because of Huck himself.
“I was kind of happy, the only reason being because Marco Huck, him beating my record to me was artificial,” said Nelson, who retired a decade ago with his final defense, ending his career with a record of 45-12-2 with 29 knockouts. “He’d not defended outside of Germany. He had one or two decisions that went his way and shouldn’t have gone his way. But he’s not boxed outside of Germany.”
Nelson, a native of the United Kingdom who now works as a television analyst, also fought during his regin in Denmark, Germany, Italy and the United States. Before that, he also had bouts in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, New Zealand and Thailand.
Huck fought outside of Germany three times — once in Poland early in his career, once in Switzerland a couple bouts before his title reign began, and against Glowacki in New Jersey.
“If you’re a champion of the world, you could’ve traveled the world, prove I can do this anywhere, that I don’t need my mom, my dad, my uncle, my brother at ringside to be my judges and referee to make sure I win,” Nelson said. “You got to travel and come back with the goods and with the jewels. That’s why I was not a great supporter of Huck.”
Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
