Marco Huck had been all set to face Ovill McKenzie on September 24. However, when McKenzie was diagnosed with a heart problem the fight was canceled and the British-based Jamaican-born fighter has since retired from boxing.

It was clearly disappointing for Huck (39-3-1, 27 knockouts), who had been training hard in preparation.

“It is hard to describe that feeling. The level of disappointment was immense,” Huck told RingTV.com through Benjamin Adamthwaite. “All the hard work that went into the fight beforehand seemed to be for nothing in that moment. I wanted to fly over to the U.K. and get McKenzie to Germany personally.

“But that’s all part of the game. It happened and now I am moving on and preparing for my upcoming fight.”

Which comes against current European champion Dmytro Kucher (24-1-1, 18 KOs) on Saturday in Hanover, Germany, and on RTL at 10:30 p.m (CET).

Huck, who will be seeking his second consecutive win since surrendering his WBO cruiserweight title last summer, is clearly pleased to be facing the respected Ukrainian.

“Yes, we managed to sort things out with Kucher and in all honesty he is the bigger challenge,” he said. “But as a boxer it doesn’t really matter what your opponent brings to the table. It is all about what you do and your capabilities.”

Huck isn’t taking anything for granted and has been, as usual, training in the German ski town of Braunlage (1 hour 45 minutes from Hanover) with his coach, Varol Vekiloglu.

He expects Kucher to give his all but ultimately feels he’ll have too much for him.

“He will want to seize his opportunity,” Huck explained. “He knows I am the biggest name out there and by winning he would be the guy to beat. At the end of the day he has nothing to lose, where as I have everything on the line.

“I know I am the stronger one out of the two of us. It will be an interesting fight as we both are big punchers, so a knockout is pretty much guaranteed.”

Currently, Huck is ranked by three of the four sanctioning bodies – WBC (No. 2), WBA (No. 2) and IBF (No. 4) – and No. 6 by THE RING (he had been rated No. 1 but slipped following his loss to Krzysztof Glowacki in August 2015).

The former long-reigning WBO boss holds the less known and respected IBO title and is open to fighting for one of the bigger titles but questions his rivals’ motivation to meet him.

“I would take them all on,” he said. “I don’t have a particular preference. The question is do they want to fight me?

“They know I am huge, the strongest cruiserweight, and therefore some of them think it‘s too risky to fight me. We will see what the future brings.”

Although he turned 32 last Friday, Huck is still highly motivated to continue his career.

“I am feeling great,” he said. “I have been fighting on this level for a long time now. My health won’t let me down and I will continue to be the best in the division. I love fighting and as long as that is the case I will carry on. It pushes me to keep going.”

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected] and you can follow him at www.twitter.com/AnsonWainwright

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