Manuel Charr a good option for Deontay Wilder’s first title defense

By Boxing News - 02/07/2015 - Comments

charr2By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) likely won’t get a chance at fighting either Tyson Fury or Wladimir Klitschko in his fight as the World Boxing Council champion.

Wladimir is already scheduled to fight on April 25th against American Bryant Jennings, and he’s likely going to need months to recover from that fight. As for Fury, we already know that he’s not truly interested in fighting Deontay next, because he wants to wait on the Wladimir fight.

Fury would rather face Wladimir rather than Wilder, which I can understand given the danger involved in facing the 6’7” Wilder.

Wilder’s first defense will be an optional one, so he can take on pretty much whoever he wants in the heavyweight division. Since Wilder doesn’t have an official mandatory due, I think a great option would be #10 WBC, #13 WBO Manuel Charr (27-2, 16 KOs). This is a great fight for Wilder, because Charr has excellent power, and he’s someone that will help market the fight due to his superb PR skills. They could stage the fight in Charr’s home country of Germany, and it would likely sellout a large arena.

Charr previously fought former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko for his title back in 2011. Charr lost the fight by a 4th round stoppage after he suffered a cut, but he was giving Vitali some problems before the stoppage. In a recent fight, Charr was beaten by Alexander Povetkin. Despite losing, Charr looked pretty decent.

In the past, Charr was set to fight Britain’s David Haye, but the fight failed to take place after Hay suffered a hand injury. That would have been a good little fight for Charr.

What’s important is that Wilder fights someone that can help drum up excitement for his fight. Charr is one of the best heavyweights in the division at attracting interest in his fights. Yeah, his lack of English skills would make it somewhat tricky to get the American boxing fans interested in the fight, but Charr is still able to make himself understood by him getting in the face of his opponents and giving them menacing looks.

YouTube video

Deontay needs experience right now before he takes on Wladimir in the future. A fight against Charr would be an excellent fight for him to gain some valuable experience for Wilder. If he can take Charr’s scalp, and then snatch someone like Tyson Fury’s scalp as well, it’ll help Wilder grow as a heavyweight to get him ready for his eventual clash with Klitschko.



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