By Ian S. Palmer
Vitali Klitschko vs Manuel Charr Preview Sept. 8th
Vitali Klitschko will be defending his WBC World Heavyweight Championship in Moscow, Russia on Sat. Sept 8th when he takes on little-known, but undefeated challenger Manuel Charr of Germany. The 41-year-old Klitschko of Ukraine will take his remarkable record of 44-2, with 40 KO’s record into the ring with him while Charr, who is ranked number seven by the WBC, has a spotless 21-0 record with 11 KOs.
While Charr may have an impeccable boxing record, he doesn’t really pose much of a threat to the champion and has never fought anybody ranked in the top 15 as of yet. The only name fighters most boxing fans may have heard of are Sherman Williams, Owen Beck, Zack Page and Danny Williams and the 27-year-old German struggled with Page and Williams. Charr just doesn’t have the speed and power to knock off the champion, but it’s a fight and anything can happen, especially if Klitschko walks into one.
If Klitschko gets past Charr there’s a possibility that he may take on Englishman David Haye, who’s the former WBA heavyweight titleholder. If this fight comes off it could be before the end of the year or sometime early in 2013. If he has a hard time of it against Charr, there’s a good chance that he’ll call it a day and go into politics in his homeland. He doesn’t need the fame or fortune anymore and Klitschko just doesn’t really have too many top-class challengers to face anymore.
Charr isn’t a bad pressure fighter and he’s got decent power. He’s quite slow though and will need to make Klitschko respect him early on in the fight. Klitschko’s last fight came back in February when he beat Britain’s Dereck Chisora by a unanimous decision in Munich, Germany. Of course, the infamous brawl took place between Haye and Chisora at the press conference after the bout. Charr last entered the ring in March when he beat Taras Bydenko by a unanimous decision.
Carr’s a decent sized heavyweight as he stands about 6-foot-4, but Klitschko will still tower over him as the champion is 6-foot-7. The challenger turned pro back in 2005 and it’s hard to knock an undefeated fighter. He’s obviously taken care of everybody he’s ever faced and while it’s a remote possibility that he could upset Klitschko, it’s not entirely impossible. We’ve seen heavily-favoured fighters and champions lose before, such as mike Tyson, who was knocked senseless by Buster Douglas in 1993 in Tokyo, Japan.
Klitschko has been trying to hype up the fight by saying that Charr’s a hungry, talented, and dangerous heavyweight and before you know it Charr just might believe him. It’s hard to imagine Charr beating the champion on points and it’s also difficult to picture him stopping Klitschko. However, if he does win, that’s probably how he’ll do it. Still, the probable ending of this fight will be due to Klitschko stopping Charr anytime after the fourth round.
