When two fighters well-matched for strength face each other, the one with the better boxing ability is always likely to be the winner, and so it was when Marco Huck defeated Victor Emilio Ramirez widely on points in their cruiserweight title fight in Halle, Germany on Saturday.

Ramirez — strong, durable but limited — tried to bully Huck out of the fight, and he did have the German challenger under pressure in the middle rounds. The Argentinean couldn’t keep it up, though. Huck came through the shaky spell and hammered Ramirez with two-handed barrages in the last few rounds. The decision wasn’t in doubt. Ramirez seemed to think he had won, but he had been well beaten, and the scores of 116-111, 116-111 and 115-112 accurately reflected Huck’s superiority. (The margin would have been wider but for a point deducted from Huck’s score for a low blow.)

There is nothing classy about Huck, but he does have a good grasp of tactics and his basic boxing skills are backed up by considerable physical strength and superb conditioning.

Huck fought a perfect fight strategically. He moved away from Ramirez’s rushes, jabbed, banged to the body every so often, clinched when it was prudent to do so, and, most important of all, he let his hands go whenever Ramirez threatened to seize control of the contest.

Ramirez had been able to outlast Alexander Alexeev on a previous visit to Germany, and around the eighth and ninth rounds it did look as if Huck, too, might be wavering. Huck wasn’t able to hold off Ramirez at this point in the fight and the Argentinean charged in and trampled over the German fighter’s defences.

Briefly it looked as if Huck might be overwhelmed in the home straight.

Huck wouldn’t have it, though. He proved to be a more determined, mentally stronger fighter than Alexeev. He came out for the 10th round with a sense of purpose and started to blast back at Ramirez, and he backed the Argentinean right off. I though that Ramirez’s confidence left him at this point in the fight. For the first time he looked a bit unsteady as Huck crashed right hands against Ramirez’s granite jaw.

I think that Huck’s heavy body punches might have taken something out of Ramirez, but I got the impression that the Argentinean wilted mentally. I suggested in the preview that this was a meeting of two fighters who liked to bully their opponents. The difference between the boxers, though, was that Huck had it in him to come back firing after going through a rough patch. I think that Ramirez believed he had things going his way, and he seemed disheartened when Huck rallied, as if much of his fighting spirit drained away.

Huck not only outsmarted Ramirez, he outfought and outgamed him, and apart from the few anxious rounds when the German boxer’s resistance did seem to be crumbling a little it was Huck’s fight as he dominated early and late and weathered Ramirez’s rush in the middle part of the contest.

It seemed to me that Huck had learned from his previous championship challenge, when he was stopped in the last round by Steve Cunningham. This time he made a conscious effort to stay disciplined and not wear himself out by winging wildly. The fight was physically demanding, but there was only one winner, and 116-111 looked the right score to me, nine rounds to three, with Huck penalised in the 11th round when Minnesota referee Mark Nelson told the judges to take a point from the German fighter’s score when a right hand strayed low one time too often for the referee’s liking. By this stage of the contest, though, Huck had only to stay up to win.

Huck-Ramirez was entertaining, but the fight of the weekend was the junior welterweight title thriller that saw Juan Urango climb off the canvas and come back to batter Randall Bailey into defeat in the 11th round. When Urango went down I thought the fight was over, but the very strong Colombian fighter showed he has a big heart as well as bulging muscles. The final fight in the eight-month season of Friday Night Fights could not have been more dramatic or compelling.

Earlier on FNF we saw another excellent fight when unbeaten Tavoris Cloud won a unanimous decision over Clinton Woods to capture the vacant IBF light-heavyweight title. Cloud showed toughness, determination and talent, and I particularly liked his double left hook — body and head. Woods was brave and incredibly durable and he was in the fight till the end although well beaten. When Woods’s legs buckled from a left hook in the eighth I thought he might be ready to go, but he not only survived Cloud’s follow-up offensive, he came back to have a strong round in the ninth.

Cloud ate too many jabs for my liking but he landed the bigger punches. Woods, though, got in his share of clean, hard shots — one right uppercut was particularly noteworthy. Cloud rightfully won a clear decision — 116-112 on all cards — but he had to fight for it. Woods redeemed himself for his lacklustre display against Antonio Tarver and could go back home to Sheffield with head held high.

Closing out the weekend, Mexican welterweight crowd pleaser Jesus Soto Karass didn’t have it all his own way in winning a unanimous decision over a game and durable Edvan Dos Santos Barros, of Brazil and Florida, in the 10-round main event on Azteca America.

Barros surprised me by being slippery and evasive early, but apart from the second I didn’t think he was winning rounds — he was too defensive. When Barros tried to come on strongly in the later rounds he paid the price — he landed some good hooks and right hands but Soto Karass delivered the harder punches and the Brazilian, blood coming from his mouth, did well to get through to the finish.