Joe Joyce-Marco Huck official for January 11th in Hannover, Germany

Agit Kabayel’s former European heavyweight title won’t remain vacant for long, as Joe Joyce and Marco Huck are set to go at it on January 11th in Hannover, Germany. The Berlin-based Huck will have home-field advantage thanks to his team winning the purse bid around a month ago.

Huck (41-5-1, 28 KO) will need every advantage he can get. Though still “just” 35, a perfectly reasonable age considering that a 34-year-old is fighting a 40-year-old for the WBC belt later this week, “Cap’n” seems to be on his last legs after 15 years in the ring. His decorated run at cruiserweight ended in a 2-3 skid thanks to Krzysztof Glowacki, Mairis Briedis, and Oleksandr Usyk, and his most notable heavyweight achievement was arguably beating Alexander Povetkin in 2012.

Joyce (10-0, 9 KO) could charitably be describe as “glacial,” but he’s the biggest hitter Huck has ever faced and the latter’s ability to take a shot has visibly waned in recent times. Huck’s got the stereotypical veteran savvy to possibly give Joyce issues if the hometown ref is charitable, but Joyce looks like a comfortable favorite.