Marco Huck

Muamer Hukić, best known as Marco Huck, is a Bosniak German professional boxer. He held the WBO cruiserweight title from 2009 to 2015, and is the joint-longest reigning cruiserweight world champion of all time, having made thirteen consecutive successful defenses, a division record shared with Johnny Nelson. Huck also held the IBO cruiserweight title from 2016 to 2017, the European cruiserweight title from 2008 to 2009, and has challenged once for the WBA heavyweight title in 2012.

Early life

Huck is an ethnic Bosniak, born in Serbia, who moved to Germany with his family when he was eight years old, and has since become a naturalized citizen.

Kickboxing career

Huck started Taekwondo and Kickboxing at the age of ten. As an amateur kickboxer, he won a gold medal at the W.A.K.O European championships in 2002 and 2003.

Kickboxing highlights

Amateur Kickboxing

2003 W.A.K.O. World Championships 2003 in Paris, France Gold −86 kg
2002 W.A.K.O. European Championships in Jesolo, Italy Gold −86 kg
Professional boxing career

Huck decided to switch to boxing, having participated in the sport since he was 15.
Huck has notable victories over opponents such as Michael Simms, Claudio Rîșco, Pietro Aurino and Vadim Tokarev. Before challenging for his first world title, Huck gained a record of 19 wins with no losses.

Huck vs. Cunningham

Huck challenged Steve Cunningham on 29 December 2007 for his first world title, the IBF Cruiserweight title. After eleven hard fought and exhausting rounds, the twelfth begun; Cunningham was landing hard shots as Huck kept moving forward. Following a rough clinch between the two, Cunningham landed a vicious straight right counter, the fighters clinched and Huck fell. Once he was back on his feet, Huck walked back against the ropes signalling that the shot had hurt him and Cunningham went straight in for the attack. For the remainder of the round, Cunningham chased his German counterpart across the ring hitting him with a barrage of hard shots which ended when Huck's corner threw in the towel and ended the beating.

European champion

Huck won the EBU cruiserweight title in September 2008 after defeating Jean Marc Monrose via a 12th round stoppage win. Huck made three successful defences defeating Fabio Tuiach, Geoffrey Battelo and Vitaliy Rusal, with all coming inside the distance.

Huck vs. Ramirez

On 29 August 2009, Huck challenged Argentine boxer Victor Emilio Ramírez for his WBO cruiserweight title at the Gerry Weber Stadium in Halle, Germany. On fight night, Huck went the 12 round distance and claimed the WBO title on unanimous decision. The judges score it 116–111, 116–111, and 115–112 in favour of Huck.

Title defences

Huck went on to make 8 successful defenses of the title from December 2009 up until October 2011. Notable opponents he defeated included unanimous decisions over Ran Nakash and Ola Afolabi, the latter who he went on to fight a further three times, TKO wins over Matt Godfrey and Brian Minto and a split decision win over future unified world champion Denis Lebedev.

Heavyweight

Huck vs. Povetkin

After a string of defenses, Huck challenged Alexander Povetkin for the WBA heavyweight title. In December 2011, a deal was reached for Povetkin to make his second defence against Huck on 25 February 2012 at Porsche Arena in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. Huck made the challenge in the post fight press conference of Povetkin's win over Cedric Boswell. It was noted that Huck would not vacate his WBO title, until after the fight, where he would assess the situation. Huck stated if he was to win the title, he would likely remain at heavyweight to challenge one of the Klitschko brothers, but would be given 10 days by the WBO to decide. Huck reached out to David Haye and Evander Holyfield to help with sparring. In January 2012, the promoters of Huck, Povetkin and Rahman attended a meeting where they discussed the winner of Povetkin vs. Huck would defend the WBA title against Rahman next. During this time, trainer Teddy Atlas failed to travel to Russia and announced he had parted ways with Povetkin. Russian trainer Alexander Zimin stepped in on short notice. For his debut at heavyweight, Huck weighed 209.4 pounds and Povetkin weighed 229.2 pounds.
Povetkin won the fight via majority decision. The fight proved to be a tough test for Povetkin. One judge scored the fight a 114–114 draw, with the remaining two judges scoring the fight 116–113 and 116–112 in favour of Povetkin. All three ringside announcers from EPIX scored the fight in favour of Huck. Chisora and Dimitrenko, who were sat ringside, scored the fight a draw. Arthur Abraham and Tomasz Adamek scored the fight clearly for Huck. The opening round started off slow however Povetkin started taking over the fight landing body shots and using his straight rights. In round 4, Huck began to let his hands go and found his range, even rocking Povetkin. Huck controlled the championship rounds as Povetkin began to show signs of fatigue. Huck came close to dropping Povetkin in the final round. After the fight, Povetkin admitted, "I underestimated him. Perhaps I didn't take this fight seriously enough." Huck said, "A lot of people who saw this fight see me as the winner." It was reported that Huck had injured his right between rounds 6 and 7. The verdict was met with boos around the arena.

Return to cruiserweight

Huck vs. Afolabi II

After failing to capture a heavyweight title, Huck returned to the cruiserweight division. Huck made a ninth successful defence on 5 May 2012 at the Messehalle in Erfurt, Germany against Ola Afolabi, a rematch to their first match which took place in 2009. The match ended in a majority draw as judge Ingo Barrabas and Paul Thomas had it 114–114 and Zoltan Enyedi scored it 115–113 in Huck's favour.

Huck vs. Arslan

Huck next defended his title against German boxer Firat Arslan at the Gerry Weber Stadium in Halle, Nordrhein-Westfalen on 3 November. Huck defeated Arslan via 12 round unanimous decision, after the scores of 115–113, 115–113, and 117–111. Many fans and pundits ringside felt as though Arslan had done enough to win. Arslan's coach Dieter Wittmann commented, "This fight was the biggest scam that I've ever seen. It's a disgrace."

Huck vs. Afolabi III

Following the controversial ending were Huck defeated Arslan, the WBO made Ola Afolabi as the new mandatory challenger for Huck's WBO title. The fight took place at the Max Schmeling Halle in Berlin on 8 June 2013. Afolabi had not fought in 13 months, last fighting in the majority draw with Huck in May 2012. The fight went the full 12 round distance with Huck claiming the majority decision thus successfully retaining the title an 11th time. The judges score the fight 117–111, 115–113, and 114–114. Huck gathered an early lead in the fight winning at least 5 of the first 7 rounds, before Afolabi started getting into the fight.

Huck vs. Arslan II

On 25 January 2014, Huck made a defence fighting Firat Arslan for a second time at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer Halle in Stuttgart. Huck scored his 26th stoppage victory after he stopped Arslan in round 6. Arslan started off the fight defensively, however after a couple of rounds, Huck found his way through with power shots. Huck dropped Arslan twice in the bout.
Huck matched the record for most consecutive world title defenses at cruiserweight, held by Johnny Nelson, when he successfully retained the WBO cruiserweight title against Mirko Larghetti on 30 August 2014, his thirteenth successful consecutive title defense.

Huck vs. Głowacki

Huck was due to make history against undefeated Krzysztof Głowacki, as it was to be his fourteenth defense, a new record. The bout took place on 14 August 2015 in Huck's American debut at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Premier Boxing Champions. Głowacki came out extremely aggressive and was effective early, going as far as to rock Huck in the opening round. As the rounds went on, Huck took control and in the sixth, he dropped his Polish counterpart with a huge left hand, Głowacki staggered to his feet and as the ref allowed the fight to continue, Huck came in to finish and Głowacki threw back everything he had, rocking Huck in the process and keeping him from ending the bout. The fight continued, and it was becoming more and more clear that Huck was taking control, he hit Głowacki with a huge punch in the tenth but his opponent survived. Coming into the eleventh round Huck was ahead on all three scorecards, he out-boxed the now desperate Głowacki for most of the round. Until after throwing a barrage of shots, Huck moved back with his hands down and Głowacki threw a vicious left-right combination and Huck tumbled back. He got back up on rubbery legs, and as the ref allowed the bout to continue, Głowacki rushed in and threw everything at Huck while he lay on the ropes, he took two huge right hands as he dropped down against the ropes, just as the referee came in and waved off the bout. Huck lost his WBO cruiserweight title and failed to break the record.

Huck vs. Afolabi IV

Huck met Afolabi for a fourth time on 27 February 27, 2016, at the Gerry Weber Stadium in Germany. Huck claimed Afolabi's International Boxing Organization cruiserweight title with the victory after Afolabi failed return for round 11. Referee Jack Reiss stopped the fight on doctor's advice due to the bad condition of Afolabi's left eye. By round seven Afolabi's left eye was swollen shut. In the Post fight interview, Afolabi stated that he would have continued to fight, but he thanked the officials for protecting him as he was unable to do so.
Huck was scheduled to defend his IBO world title against British boxer Ovill McKenzie at the Festhalle Arena in Frankfurt on 24 September. On September 20, a week before the fight, McKenzie pulled out of the fight due to illness. It was said that McKenzie had been given medical advice from health professionals. McKenzie later retired.