08.12.06 – By Troy Ondrizek: Relegated to being the Jan Brady of the boxing world, the cruiserweight division needs someone to pay attention to it. There are only a handful of individuals who I have actually found that are knowledgeable about the cruiserweights and truth be told they are almost all from Europe. Plus the division is almost completely ignored by boxing scribes, so I am on a mission to rectify this travesty. So far, I haven’t done well, I can talk all day long about fighter after fighter and I can hope that readers will do some research about them, hasn’t happened..
So I decided to do the same for the cruiserweights as I have for their bigger brothers, it’s time for a prospect list. In this inaugural piece we will see a familiar name that appeared on the first heavyweight prospect list, a young German stud who is taking over Europe like a plague, a former Olympian medalist who almost never became a professional fighter, and a Russian thug who punches through his opponents in impressive fashion.
B.J. Flores: (17-0-1 12KOs)
Flores (27) is the first high-profile heavyweight prospect to move down in weight to compete at the cruiserweight level. Flores is a two-time amateur national heavyweight champ and former amateur stud at both light heavyweight and heavyweight. Flores fought his first 16 career bouts at heavyweight compiling a 15-0-1 record at that level. Flores had respectable power at heavyweight, but primarily used his refined boxing ability to overwhelm his opponents and land his power punches. If you have ever gotten the opportunity to watch Flores box, it is a beautiful thing. Flores works well behind his jab and throws straight accurate shots. However, Flores’ greatest attribute is his ring intelligence; the kid seems to know how to handle every situation and usually counters effectively to get out of trouble. If you have seen these skills from Flores, that means you have seen him fight at heavyweight, because in his two cruiserweight bouts against Ali Supreme and Gary Dydell, Flores has yet to go an entire round. It is clearly evident that Flores has power at this level, and more than enough to take him to the top of the division. I am very high on this prospect for several reasons and will continue to be until proven otherwise inside the ring. Flores has tentative bouts with Luke Munsen in January and Patrick Nwamu soon afterwards.
Marco Huck: (16-0 13KOs)
Huck is the current golden boy of the German cruiserweight scene. Huck took that honor by defeating longtime cruiserweight contender and local favorite Rudiger May in a ten round decision. Huck at 22 years of age has a long bright future ahead of him. Huck also has an impressive victory over the very tough and skilled Nuri Seferi and a solid KO over French pretender Rachid El Hadak. Huck is still new to the sport and is learning as he goes, but his ability to pick up the finer points of the sweet science is amazing. Huck has fairly fast hands and delivers his shots with authority. Huck though is a standard European fighter; he fights straight up and works off the jab. Huck because of his training doesn’t throw the left hook all that much and power shots come primarily from his straight right. The kid though is going to be around for a while and Huck is more than ready mentally to deal with any challenge. As he continues prove his ability inside the ring, Huck has a very tough test ahead of him in the form of former world title challenger Pietro Aurino for some regional trinket title on the 16th of December. I like how aggressive Sauerland is with Huck’s career, this only shows how much faith they have in the kid. We should expect big things from Marco Huck soon.
Rudolf Kraj (9-0 7KOs)
Kraj is the oldest fighter in this group (29) and has the least amount of professional experience. However, Kraj has earned his way onto this list for a myriad of reasons. One being that, well, I have a soft-spot for Czech fighters, see Ondrej Pala; two, is that Kraj was the 2000 Olympic silver medalist in Sydney at the light heavyweight level; and three is because Kraj has earned the nod in the ring with some victories over reputable opponents. Kraj has ruined a couple undefeated records on his path to greatness, most notably Rachid El Hadak of whom Marco Huck also achieved victory, but Kraj got there first. In Kraj’s last outing he stopped Pavel Melkomian in the 12th round to garner a regional alphabet strap. Melkomian was 20-1 coming into the fight and his only loss was to a stud named Grigory Drozd. As for Kraj’s style, he isn’t the biggest puncher, but he picks up his KOs via accurate punching and more importantly, very good combination punching. Kraj moves around the ring more than most Europeans do and he throws hooks on a regular basis. Like previously mentioned Kraj is a spectacular combination puncher and he really overwhelms his opponents with these shots. Conditioning isn’t much of an issue with Kraj as he throws a high number of punches each round and doesn’t wear down too much as the fight progresses. Kraj is now among the best at the Czech national level, a fight with power-punching Lubos Suda better be on the near horizon. Suda is a very solid fighter who can wreck the career of any unsuspecting fighter who gets a little complacent while starring at him inside the squared circle. That fight would be a classic boxer versus puncher and Kraj could easily maneuver his way around Suda and move onto the European level alongside Huck. No immediate fight is on the horizon for Kraj but as a fan I hope something opens up soon.
Grigory Drozd (25-1-0 20KOs)
While Flores, Huck, and Kraj are known for their skill-sets, Drozd is just the opposite. Don’t get me wrong, Drozd has skill and he knows how to box and move, but he forgets everything as soon as someone lands a good shot on him. As soon as Drozd gets caught, all hell breaks loose and whoever hit him better cover their faces and their family jewels. Nothing is safe when this Russian powerhouse gets steamrolling. I LOVE watching Drozd fight, its like organized chaos minus the organization. Grigory has mowed over several respectable fighters like Saul Montana who often parades at heavyweight, Shane Swartz, and most notably Pavel Melkomian. I do believe I’ve made it apparent that Drozd can punch, but he does box like a seasoned vet from time to time. The only loss on Drozd’s record is against perennial contender and longtime tough-man Firat Arslan. Arslan has never been stopped, but he can be out-boxed. Drozd never thought of out-boxing Arslan and for five rounds put everything he had up against Arslan’s head, and Arslan stood there and grimaced, but stayed upright. At the end of the fifth round Arslan came after the totally spent Drozd and didn’t make any contact, but threw a flurry of punches in which Drozd wasn’t getting hit, but wasn’t returning shots either; an over-zealous ref stopped the fight and took Drozd’s perfect record from him. It was Drozd’s fault for fighting a tactically inferior fight, but the fight was never taken out of the Russian. I expect him to be back soon because that bout was a WBA title eliminator and people want to see Drozd fight. Nothing is in the pipelines rumor-wise for fights for Drozd, but a top 25 opponent will get a call soon enough to face him and I’ll be waiting by my computer so I can catch the live-stream on the internet.
As with any prospect you never now exactly how things will turn out for their careers. There will be guys like Michael Grant who was supposed to be the next great thing, and then reality hit him in the form of Lennox Lewis’ hands; or fighters like Tony Ayala or Ike Ibeabuchi in which drugs or mental disease took their careers away from them. I though love to see young fighters go at it anyways and to be able to see the cream rise to the top is what makes boxing worthwhile to me. These four fighters are a very solid foundation in which to build a division upon, and there are many more prospects to come amongst the cruiserweights. Until next time, enjoy the fights and follow these fighters.