By Jim Dower: Former heavyweight title challenger Manuel Charr (23-1, 13 KO’s) was too strong for an over-matched Yakup Saglam (28-2, 25 KO’s) in stopping him after just two rounds when Saglam injured his shoulder on Friday night at the Strada Henri Coanda, Galati, Romania.

Charr jumped all over the 35-year-old Saglam in the 1st round, as he attempted to get him out of there early like he had with his last opponent. Saglam somehow made it through the 1st round, but the battering continued into the 2nd.

During the brawling, Saglam injured his shoulder and the fight had to be stopped after the round ended.

Charr, #8 WBC, wants a rematch against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, who stopped Charr in the 4th round last year in September after badly cutting him up. Charr may end up getting another title shot once Vitali retires, but he’s going to need to wait around a while and face better opposition than guys like Saglam.

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31-year-old cruiserweight contender Alexander Alekseev (24-2-1, 20 KO’s) defeated Garrett Wilson (13-6, 7 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 117-111, 118-111 and 116-112. Alekseev fought like he was conserving strength in order to avoid running out of gas, which has been a problem for him in many of his fights.

Alekseev looked robotic though much of the fight, and still ended up gassing out in the second half of the bout.

Alekseev, #2 WBO, #4 IBF, #9 WBA, was coming off of a controversial 12 round draw against Firat Arslan from last year in May. Alekseev appeared to have lost that fight by a wide margin but the judges instead scored it a draw.

The southpaw Alekseev fought well in the first six rounds, hitting Wilson with jabs, right hooks and straight lefts. He threw some nice combinations, and you could see that Alekseev is a very skilled fighter. However, he always seemed to be holding back as if he was pacing and looked like he was afraid to tire out. Had it been a better fighter than Wilson, Alekseev would have problems because he would have been pressured and we’d have likely see him gas out again.