European cruiserweight champion Marco "Käpt'n" Huck stepped up and became a World champion last night by beating WBO champion Victor Emilio Ramirez of Argentina. Huck, 24, took his record to 26-1 by defeating the world champion on the judges scorecards. All three judges scored in favour of Huck by 116-111 (twice) and 115-112. Ramirez fell to 15-2 with the loss.
Ramirez was returning to Germany, for his second fight outside his homeland. In the first he beat the then unbeaten prospect Alexander Alexeev for the interim WBO belt, when he forced the Germnan to retire at the end of the 9th round. Huck was stepping up to World level for the first time since his defeat to American Steve Cunningham back in 2007.
The fight started with Huck forcing the pace, which seemed to catch Ramirez by surprise, but by the 3rd round Ramirez seemed to be getting back in the fight by trying to rough up Huck on the inside. The fight continued in the same vein through the middle rounds, with Ramirez trying to knock out Huck on the inside, who responded by throwing nice combinations to keep Ramirez off him.
By the later rounds it seemed that Ramirez was beginning to tire and fade, but managed to keep in the fight when Huck was deducted a point for continuous low blows. Ramirez tried one last rally in the last round trying to blast out Huck but the bell rang at the end of the 12th and the judges where called on.
In a country where it is hard to score a win against a home town fighter, Ramirez had not done enough when all three judges scored the fight to Huck. This writer scored the fight 115-113 and believe the decision to be a good call.
After the fight the new 24 year old champion said "This is an unbelievable feeling, Ramirez was an incredibly tough opponent. I have never been in the ring with someone punching that hard. But I did what my coach told me. I can´t describe what I feel. I am so happy to be world champion.”
Main support was European super middleweight champion Karo Murat attempting to step up to the light heavyweight division. His first fight in his new weight division was for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental light heavyweight title agaisnt Ukranian Sergey Demchenko who was stepping up in level for the first time.
The German dominated with his speed and work rate throughout the fight and in a one sided result won on the scorecards by 117-111 (twice) and 120-108.
“I am pleased with my performance,” he said. “The first fight at a higher weight is always tricky but I adjusted well.”
The biggest upset of the night came when the German based Nigerian Heavyweight Gbenga Oloukun beat veteran American and former world champion Lamon Brewster over 8 rounds.
In a close fought contest the Nigerian took the fight on points, winning by margins of 77-75 (twice) and 79-76.
By LEE COLLIER
