(Marco Huck, on right, landing a right uppercut to the head of Vadim Tokarev) 26.05.07 – By Scott Frake: Unbeaten cruiserweight Marco Huck (19-0, 14 KO’s) won a convincing 12-round majority decision over Vadim Tokarev (23-1-1, 16 KO’s) on Saturday night in the IBF eliminator at the Jako Arena, in Bamberg, Germany.
Huck, 22, controlled the action for much of the bout, landing multiple combinations frequently. Though Tokarev was the aggressor through much of the action, he lacked power in his punches and he did little damage to Huck, who had little trouble taking the shots. From the first round on, Huck punished Tokarev at his leisure, choosing when to attack and when to back off and go into his shell.
It was apparent immediately that Huck had the superior offensive arsenal, but strangely enough, he mostly let Tokarev be the aggressor in the bout, instead of taking the fight to the Russian fighter. Tokarev, 35, formerly from Russian and now living in Los Angeles, California, was effective during the early action, in which he was able to land frequently with hooks to the body and head. However, by the 6th round, he began to take steady punishment from the younger Huck. By the 8th round, Huck was increasingly confident, no doubt because Tokarev looked completely exhausted as if he was going to pass out.
At this point, Huck, often looking like an angry bull, began to periodically charge after Tokarev, usually after absorbing a few harmless punches, and would come storming forward throwing punches as he went. These charges looked embarrassingly amateur. What made it even worse was that it was done after Huck had been hit with a few minor punches, not huge shots. During one of these wild charges in the 9th round, Huck decided to slam Tokarev with a right elbow to face. The move looked like a football player attempting to make a block. The referee, Robert Byrd, immediately stopped the action and disgustedly made a point deduction to Huck and warned him about further displays of amateurish aggression.
During rounds 9 through 12, Huck easily controlled the action, landing sharp right hands and hard jabs. Tokarev, as previously mentioned, was a spent force by the 8th round and had nothing to come back at Huck with. In the final rounds, boring as they were, Huck continued with his wild running charges, mixing in a fair amount of taunts a long the way. It looked bad from my perspective and made him seem like a poor sport, especially considering he had the fight well under control and there was no need to humiliate his opponent. The final judges’ scores were 117-110, 117-110, for Huck and 114-114.