Charr defeats Williams

By Boxing News - 10/14/2009 - Comments

Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Manuel Charr (13-0, 6 KO’s) defeated journeyman Sherman Williams (34-11-2, 19 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday at the Stadthalle, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 98-94, 97-93 and 99-91. Charr, 25, a fighter that is more of a project than a potential champion, showed a ton of flaws against the 37-year-old Williams, especially on defense. Williams was able to club him all night long with big shots.

However, Charr, 6’3 ½” had a big size advantage over the 5’11” Williams, and was able to get the better of the older 37-year-old Williams in the first two rounds on size alone. However, Williams came on in the 3rd round and teed off on Charr with right hands and lefts to the head. Williams looked a lot like James Toney appearance and even fought a lot like him.

charr5643Charr was over-matched in this round and was hit many times without being able to do much to stop Williams. Charr came back in the 4th dominated the last minute of action with his hard right hands. Charr looked wild at times throwing wide hooks and looking like a fighter without a lot boxing skills. In fact, Charr looked eerily like one of the typical MMA fighters who only have a surface familiarity with boxing.

Charr, however, has been a pro for the past four years but he clearly has a lot to learn before he gets to the level where he’s not so crude looking in the ring. In rounds five and six, Williams had his way with the slow moving Charr, hitting him with big shots one after another.

Charr was unable to do much in the round himself other than take punishment. Williams fought and made Charr look like a 0-13 fighter during this time rather than a 13-0 project. In the 7th, Charr changed up his tactics and started moving in and out to avoid standing in front of the 5’11” Williams.

It seemed kind of unusual to see a big fighter like Charr fighting and in and out style against a fighter the size of Williams, but he had to do something because Charr was getting nailed over and over again by Williams when he would stand right in front of him for long periods of time.

This, way at least, Charr was able to avoid getting hit with Williams’ biggest shots while in close. In rounds eight through ten, Charr took control of the fight and used his height and reach to control the bout from the outside. Charr still made big mistakes by rushing in and throwing wild windmill shots that Williams easily countered, but for the most part, Charr stayed under control and limited his poor boxing habits.

Charr’s German handlers need to give him a lot of work against more journeyman because Charr will be destroyed if they put him in with a quality contender in the near future. He’s just too raw and unpolished right now to beat a top contender. I don’t know whether he’ll ever get to the level of contender status because he’s flawed in a several different areas, starting with his poor defense.