Ken Huber wants to turn back the clock.
The 32-year-old British Columbia boxing champion is working to make 2016 look like 2013, the year he won a national title, when the fighter from the Cariboo known as “Heavy Hands” was at the top of his game.
The end of 2015 was a tough time for Huber. He lost a pair of unanimous decisions to Samuel Moses, an undefeated 23-year-old boxer based out of Vancouver. Most recently the two fought for the B.C. Golden Gloves in November.
Huber, the current B.C. Combsport champ at heavyweight and cruiserweight, has a non-title bout scheduled in Langley on Jan. 29 against Jordan Bowers, a tall southpaw fighter from the Eastside Boxing Club in Vancouver. Bowers isn't as experienced as the local champion, and Huber says he's using the fight as a “tune up” opportunity to get himself in peak shape for a title defence and second rematch against Moses, who officially challenged Huber for the cruiserweight championship in March.
“I'm dying to get at it,” says Huber of the next Moses bout, which will be the first official title fight between the two. “I got to make that right. Essentially, this [Jan. 29 bout] is the start of the training camp for the cruiserweight title in March.”
“In order for me to train hard and be ready for a title fight against a very willing and tough competitor, I think I need to give myself three months to be ready,” Huber adds. “I've had a couple losses set me back... I've had some time off, had some injuries, had some sickness. I need to get rid of all that and get back to where I was when I won the national title in 2013.”
Huber, who grew up in Forest Grove, operates the Kamloops Boxing Academy with his dad, Paul.