WBO Cruiserweight Champion Captain Huck (33-1, 24 KOs) could not believe his eyes when he met challenger Rogelio Rossi (17-2-1, 11 KOs) at today´s press conference in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Listed at two meters by BoxRec, the “Argentinian Giant” turned out to be much smaller than that. “Maybe he shrunk of fear,” Captain Huck said. “Doesn´t matter anyway. I don´t care what size he is. I have knocked out taller and smaller opponents. I will clinch a spectacular victory on Saturday night. He will not get my title.” Huck then measured his opponent. The result: 192 centimeters!
Rossi seemed to enjoy the confusion regarding his height. “It´s true, I´m not two meters tall,” he stated. “But I will still defeat Huck. If you´re scared, your opponent looks much bigger than he actually is. I guess this has happened to Huck. I will take his title on Saturday night. I have trained hard and I will win.”
German coaching legend Ulli Wegner said Rossi´s actual size will make no difference. “We have done sparring with tall guys and with small guys, we are prepared for everything,” he stated. “If Rossi was clever, he would have stood on tiptoes during the face-to-face to look bigger than he is. I don´t think he can cope with Huck´s explosiveness and aggressiveness anyway.”
In the co-featured main event, IBF Intercontinental Middleweight Champion Dominik Britsch (25-0, 9 KOs) defends his title against Billy Lyell (24-9, 5 KOs), while unbeaten heavyweight sensation Kubrat Pulev (13-0, 6 KOs) takes on Travis Walker (38-6-1, 30 KOs) for the IBF International Heavyweight Title.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
