This one could prove to be a good fight. The EBU has reportedly ordered a fight to take place between former WBO cruiserweight champ Marco Huck, now competing as a heavyweight, and Agit Kabayel, the former EBU heavyweight champ. The two sides are now involved in negotiations, with the all-German clash seemingly likely to go down some time this year.
So who wins this one – a fight between a veteran crowd-pleaser who was involved in so many thrilling cruiserweight battles, and a significantly younger and naturally bigger man? 36-year-old Huck, 42-5-1(28) overall and winner of two of his last three, all at heavyweight (one No Contest), has seemingly been around forever. First winning the WBO belt at cruiserweight way back in 2009, “Kapt’n” Huck has faced so many big names. And back in 2012, Huck slugged it out with Alexander Povetkin in a thriller that contested the WBA heavyweight belt, with Huck losing a close majority decision.
But how much fire has Huck got left in his belly today? Huck has not fought since August of last year, when he won a UD over Dennis Lewandowski. Maybe the rest has done him good?
28-year-old Kabayel, who is currently 21-0(13) and is coming off a January points win over the seriously crafty and durable Kevin Johnson, is not as exciting as Huck is (or was) but he is the bigger guy, the younger guy and he is by far the fresher fighter. Kabayel has earned good wins over the likes of Dereck Chisora and Andriy Rudenko. Still, Kabayel will not exactly dwarf Huck (6’3” for Kabayel, an inch shorter for Huck) and Marco has an absolute ton of experience.
To repeat, this one may well come down to how much Huck has got left. If he has one more big effort inside him, don’t be surprised if Huck, with his sheer determination and his love of warfare, gets the win here. For some time, we’ve been waiting to see how good Kabayel is and how far he can go. We might get an answer in this fight. Let’s see if the two sides can thrash out a deal.