By Jason Kim: On September 8th, 41-year-old WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (44-2, 40 KO’s) can’t afford to let unbeaten 27-year-old contender Manuel Charr (21-0, 11 KO’s) hang around for 12 rounds like he did last February in Vitali’s win over Dereck Chisora. Vitali ended up gassing out in that fight and looking bad from the constant pressure that Chisora was able to put on him.

Vitali and Charr will be meeting each other at the Olimpiyskiy, in Moscow, Russia and will be likely fighting in front of a huge Russian crowd that will turn out to see Vitali fight for the first time. Vitali’s been fighting most of his fights since turning pro in Germany and this will be a good opportunity for Russians to see Vitali fight for the first and possibly the last time, as Vitali could retire if he’s elected to office in Ukraine.

He’ll be running for a parliament seat in October in Ukraine and there’s a better than average chance that Vitali will get the position. He’s already said that he’ll likely retire from boxing if he gets the position because it will be too difficult to try and balance both careers at the same time due to the time commitments needed for both.

Vitali wants to end his career on a positive note and the best way to do that is not to let the young kid Charr hang around for too long so that he can get his confidence up. Oddly enough, Charr is already supremely beyond what you would think he should be given his average accomplishments in beating exclusively 2nd and 3rd tier opposition his entire career.

Vitali can’t allow Charr to get into the fight because Charr is young and strong enough to make this a very difficult fight for Vitali if he’s able to last until the deep rounds. Charr has power that is comparable to Chisora, but he’s much better at placing his punches than Chisora and a lot more active.

Chisora’s wild shots and his inactivity might have saved Vitali from losing last time out, because he didn’t have to worry about someone that was throwing a ton of shots. Charr will be a lot more difficult if he’s able to hang around into the second half of the fight.