By Jason Kim: In trying to analyze what was going through previously unbeaten Manuel Charr’s head tonight in his 4th round TKO loss to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO’s) in Moscow, Russia, the best I can come up with is that the 27-year-old Charr thought he could wait Vitali out until the later rounds to finally start bringing it on when Vitali tired.

Charr was playing possum in the same that Ross Puritty did with Vitali’s younger brother Wladimir Klitschko when Puritty held back until the 10th round against Wladimir in their fight in 1998 and was able to hurt and stop an exhausted Wladimir in the 11th.

When you wait out a fighter like Vitali you’re taking a tremendous risk of getting knocked out from an accumulation of shots or, in the case of Charr, suffering a bad cut that caused the fight to be halted. That’s exactly what happened tonight when Charr did nothing for four rounds and was cut badly in the 4th above his right eye, causing the fight to be stopped by the ringside doctor. Charr was furious after the fight, pacing back and forth, talking German loudly with an angry face, motioning with his arms in an angry manner.

However, Charr only has himself to blame because he didn’t follow the “Rocky” script by taking the fight to the champion instead of just sitting back hoping the 41-year-old Vitali would exhaust himself. To his credit, Vitali did look like he was tiring a bit, but those right hands just kept coming and coming and it eventually was just too much for Charr after his face was a bloody mess from the cut.

Charr fought bravely, if not with intelligence, was only knocked down once in the fight by a right to the head that connected when Charr off balance late in the 2nd round.

Charr should have taken the fight to Vitali from the get go. At least if he tried to throw shots like Dereck Chisora had last February, he might have lucked out with Vitali injuring a shoulder or gassing out from the pressure. But Charr just looked like he thought he could exhaust Vitali by blocking and absorbing Vitali’s huge shots with his arms, gloves and unfortunately his head. It weird plan doomed for failure.