Marco Huck vs Ola Afolabi Preview May 5th
Ola Afolabi will be attempting to avenge his 12-round unanimous decision loss to WBO Cruiserweight Champion Marco Huck back in 2009 when the two meet at the Messehalle in Erfurt, Thuringen, Germany on May 5. Huck won the first fight on a close decision in his adopted homeland of Germany.
The 32-year-old Afolabi, who hails from Britain, has a 19-2-3 record with nine KOs to his name. The 27-year-old champion Huck was born in Serbia and will take a 34-2 record with him into the ring with 25 KOs. Both men fought recently with Afolabi beating Valery Brudov by a fifth round stoppage on March 3 and Huck losing a controversial 12-round majority decision to Alexander Povetkin on Feb. 25 in Germany. Huck moved up to heavyweight for that fight to challenge for Povetkin’s WBA Championship.
Afolabi has been waiting anxiously to get a rematch with Huck and now his time has come and he intends to take full advantage of it. He feels he won the first bout and Huck was awarded the decision because it took place in Germany. However, this fight’s in Germany too, so Afolabi might want to guarantee a win by knocking Huck out.
Huck has been busy fighting other opponents over the past two and a half years and other than the Povetkin fight, has been doing quite well for himself. This will be the ninth defence of the title which he won by decision over Victor Ramirez in Germany back in August of 2009.
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Afolabi’s only other loss came against American Allan Green, who beat him by a four-round decision way back in 2003. He’s fought a few decent opponents over the years, but is a relatively unknown fighter, even back in his homeland of England. He doesn’t possess the power that Huck does, but at 6-foot-3, has a two-inch height advantage on him.
These two obviously know each other quite well and Afolabi hasn’t been beaten since their last fight. Even though Huck lost his last match to Povetkin he gained a lot of confidence knowing he came so close to adding the heavyweight title to his cruiserweight belt.
Afolabi has wanted this fight for almost three years and seems to have a lot more motivation than Huck. However, his lack of power may let him down again. Huck definitely doesn’t want to lose two fights in a row and is looking forward to quieting Afolabi once and for all. This bout could start out as a boxing match and then turn into a brawl. If it does, the advantage will go to Huck.
Prediction
Look for another close fight between these two, but also look for the result to be similar to their first bout, meaning Huck will retain his belt by decision.
Odds
Online sportsbook 5dimes.com has the current odds of a Huck victory at -190 and an Afolabi win at +165. The odds of it going over 10.5 rounds are -485 and going under 10.5 Rounds at +350. Visit 5Dimes.com to bet on this fight! Don’t forget to check out the other boxing betting previews for the weekend.
Marco Huck betting • Ola Afolabi betting