Gerry Weber Stadium in Halle, Germany hosts big-time boxing this coming Saturday, February 27th as former Cruiserweight world champion Marco Huck returns to face Ola Afolabi for a fourth time. Huck is 2-0-1 already in his career against Afolabi. Both men are coming off highlight reel fights. The IBO World TItle is on the line as Afolabi is making the first defense of the belt he won last November in Russia with a 5th round knock out of Rakhim Chakhkiev. In that fight he was the clear underdog. As for Huck, the veteran WBO World Cruiserweight champion lost his belt to Krzysztof Glowacki last August in his debut in the United States. The match won consideration for “Match of the Year”, but Huck was on the losing end and he returns home looking for a win. Afolabi is a comfortable fit for a proposed bounce-back. Huck is a favorite at -245, with the comeback on Afolabi paying +205. The over/under is set at 9 1/2, with the over paying -440 and the under at +350. The pair have gone 36 rounds in their three previous meetings. The co-feature of the evening comes in the women’s division. With women’s boxing getting more attention than ever, Cecilia Braekhus (27-0), known as “The First Lady” is hoping to make a successful return after a layoff of more than a year. Braekhus is a huge -5500 favorite over her opponent Chris Namus (21-3), who is returning at +2200. The match is for 10 rounds of 2 minutes, but there is no over/under posted for this one. Now, with such a wide line, you would expect there not to be any potential loose ends, but this match has them. As good as Braekhus is, she is now 34 years old and she has been away from action for fifteen months. Part of the reason for the long layoff was a squabble with management that saw her wind up in Germany being handled by Vitali Klitshko and K2 Promotions. She was supposed to return on the undercard of Wladimir Klitschko vs Tyson Fury but was injured. This bout marks her return, and though the card is not as big as Klitschko vs Fury, but this is still the biggest stage she has ever performed on. Namus is a tough veteran whose toughest test on her resume is a pair of wars with Argentina’s Fernanda Soledad Alegre for the WBO’s Lightweight world title. She will be moving up in weight, and this is his first fight outside of South America.
