Briedis wins vacant WBC cruiserweight belt
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Mairis Briedis won the vacant WBC cruiserweight belt in a one-sided unanimous 12-round points decision against Marco Huck at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany on Saturday night.
The title became vacant when Tony Bellew from England moved up to fight David Haye in a heavyweight bout. Bellew
has been made WBC champion emeritus. Bellew, who injured his hand in the Haye fight, can now have a direct shot at Briedis.
In a dull fight Briedis (22-0; 18), who also claimed Huck’s IBO belt, won with scores of 118-109, 117-110 and 116-111.
The 32-year-old Huck (40-4-1; 27), a former two-time world champion, was a slow starter and never really got into the fight as Briedis usd his educated jab, continuing to pile up the points while dominating in the last round.
Briedis from Latvia, also 32-years-old, made his pro debut in October 2009. He has previously held the IBA and WBC Silver cruiserweight titles and in February 2016 he beat South Africa’s Danie Venter in a clash for the vacant IBF Inter-Continental cruiserweight title.
Huck, who was born in Ugao, Serbia but fights out of Germany, won the WBO cruiserweight belt in February 2009 and made 15 successful defences before losing the belt to Krzysztof Glowacki in August 2015.
The other cruiserweight champions are WBA Denis Lebedev (Russia), WBO Oleksandr Usyk (Ukraine) and IBF Murat Gassiev (Russia).
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