By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Manuel Charr (21-0, 11 KO’s) is being given a title shot that he’s hardly earned against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (44-2, 40 KO’s) on September 8th at the Olimpiyskiy in Moscow, Russia. If Charr blows this shot, he may not ever get another crack at a world title because there are a lot better heavyweights contenders than him in the division.

Charr is getting the fight against the 41-year-old Vitali at the perfect time with Vitali starting to show serious cracks in his game due to his age. Charr has to take advantage of this title shot because he may get picked off the next time around when he tries to come from this fight.

Charr has failed to really establish himself as a one of the top contenders despite his high ranking by the World Boxing Council. Charr’s handlers have matched him pretty much against journeyman and 2nd tier fodder. Charr’s best fights have come against guys Marcelo Luiz Nascimento and Taras Bydenko rather than better fighters like Tyson Fury, Alexander Dimitrenko, Ruslan Chagaev, Kubrat Pulev, Bermane Stiverne, Seth Mitchell, Chris Arreola, Mariusz Wach, Odlanier Solis, Chris Arreola, Tony Thompson, Eddie Chambers, David Haye, Robert Helenius and David Price. Charr’s management has kept him away from all those fighters and they obviously did Charr a big favor by doing so because I can’t see one of that bunch that Charr would have a chance at beating.

Charr has got to go for broke in this fight against Vitali by pressuring him like mad early and as long as he can. Vitali doesn’t have much power and he tends to get most of his KOs by tagging his shorter opponents over the course of the fight. Charr can make things difficult for Vitali by taking the fight to him and hitting him hard in every round. Vitali doesn’t react well to getting hit, so there’s a possibility that he might quit if he gets hit too much or gets tired.

Whatever the case, this could be the last time that Charr fights for a world title because I can’t imagine him getting another title shot by facing the kind of opposition he did to get this one. Next time around, Charr may be forced to fight someone good and if that happens I can’t see him doing very well due to his lack of speed and big time power.