HBO to televise Klitschko vs. Charr on September 8th

By Boxing News - 07/16/2012 - Comments

Image: HBO to televise Klitschko vs. Charr on September 8thBy Dan Ambrose: HBO has decided to televise the September 8th fight between WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (44-2, 40 KO’s) and Manuel Charr (21-0, 11 KO’s) from Olimpiyskiy, in Moscow, Russia, according to Dan Rafael. The Klitschko-Charr fight will be part of a split site double-header with the other fight being the bout between Chad Dawson and Andre Ward from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.

For Klitschko fans, this will be greeted as good news because it’s rare that HBO airs the Klitschkos on their network nowadays.

As Rafael points out, why did HBO choose not to televise fights between Vitali vs. Dereck Chisora, Carl Froch vs. Lucian Bute and David Haye vs. Chisora, but then turns around and chooses to televise the Vitali-Charr fight. This fight is considered a terrible mismatch, and if HBO wants to bore their fans this is the fight to televise.

But what’s confusing is why they decided to televise this fight of all fights since the fight shapes up to be one of the worst mismatches that Vitali has been involved with perhaps dating back to his fight against Albert Sosnowski. Charr, 6’3″, is a limited fighter without much skills or experience against quality opposition.

Charr has a high ranking by the World Boxing Council at #7, but he’s never actually fought a top tier opponent before. Charr has struggled against B and C level opposition, and would seem like the last fighter you would pick from the top 15 to deserve a shot against Vitali. Charr, however, is well known in Germany where he lives and fights, and he’s admired over there despite having fought no one of note. He’s built up a fan base over there, and his fans don’t seem to care that he’s still not faced anyone that you could consider a quality fighter. Charr barely beat journeyman Zack Page in 2010, and a lot of boxing fans think Charr deserved to lose that fight.



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