By Jim Dower: #8 WBC heavyweight contender Manuel Charr (22-1, 12 KO’s) took care of 34-year-old journeyman Konstantin Airich (24-9-2, 18 KO’s) in a stopping him in the 1st round on Friday night to capture both the vacant WBC Baltic and WBC Mediterranean heavyweight titles at the Maritim Hotel, in Cologne Germany.

Charr dropped Airich with a hard left to the body. Airich was in too much pain to get up from the knockdown and the fight was then stopped by referee Daniel Van De Wiele.

Charr rushed Airich as soon as the fight started, hitting him the head, shoulder, chest, and midsection. The referee had to stop the action when an over anxious Charr shoved Airich halfway across the ring while unloading on him.

Airich was covering up the whole time and never even threw more than a punch or two. It was pure survival from Airich and not impressive stuff, because Charr didn’t look all that powerful. Charr looked like a club fighter against someone that was reluctant to be in the ring.

Charr had lost his previous fight to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in September in a 4th round TKO. As bad as Airich looked tonight, Charr looked even worse against Vitali.
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On the undercard, heavyweight Danny Williams (44-15, 33 KO’s) was beaten by Werner Kreiskott (13-19-1, 8 KO’s) by an 8 round points decision. It was a close fight and I thought it could have gone the other way. Williams didn’t look good, but neither did Kreiskott.