Brian Minto and Marco Huck have signed a contract to meet for Huck's WBO cruiserweight championship May 1 at EWE Arena in Oldenburg, Germany.

This will be the first cruiserweight bout for Butler's Minto, who is 34-3 with 21 knockouts as a professional heavyweight.

Minto, 35, left for Los Angeles earlier this week to train at Freddie Roach's camp for six weeks.

"We got everything we wanted and a little bit more," Minto's manager, Pat Nelson, said about the deal. "Coming off a loss and being able to fight for a world title right away is more than we could have expected."

Minto suffered a fourth-round TKO at the hands of Chris Arreola in Atlantic City, N.J., in December. Arreola outweighed Minto by 40 pounds.

Minto needs to drop only four pounds to meet the cruiserweight limit of 200.

"We could have passed on the Arreola fight, maybe fought another contender and won, then get (Wladimir) Klitschko for the heavyweight title," Nelson said.

"The size difference would have been enormous. We go over to Germany and Brian gets a broken jaw or whatever, all for what? Just to say he got a title shot?

"Now he's got a title shot in a fight he can actually win. Brian believes he's going to go over there and knock the guy out," Nelson added.

Huck, 25, is 28-1-1 with 21 KOs.

The fight will be broadcast throughout Germany on free TV from EWE Arena, which seats 6,000. Nelson is working on an Internet broadcast in the U.S.

"We don't have pay TV in Germany," said Hagan Doering, executive director of Sauerland Events, which is promoting the fight. "But boxing is very popular there and Brian Minto is very popular there.

"He has developed a following in our country and he will become extremely popular if he wins."

Minto has a four-fight contract with Sauerland if he wins the title. He has a two-fight deal if he loses. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Doering said the Minto-Huck fight was put together now "because of public interest and the challenging matchup.

"We wanted a competitive fight for Marco and a good draw," Doering said. "Brian Minto gives us both of those things."