By Jim Dower: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Magomed Abdusalamov (16-0, 16 KO’s) survived a 1st round knockdown from 42-year-old journeyman Jameel McCline (41-14-3, 24 KO’s) to come back and stop McCline with a jab to the head in the 2nd round on Saturday night on the Vitali Klitschko vs. Manuel Charr undercard at the Olimpiyskiy, in Moscow, Russia.

In the 1st round, McCline shocked Abdusalamov by coming out fast and knocking him down with a hard right hand to the head. Abdusalamov was seriously hurt and stayed down for a long time. Had McCline not fought timidly after Abdusalamov got back to his feet he likely would have stopped him with no problems because he was hitting him with every right hand he threw.

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in the main event, WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO’s) proved to be too much for his overmatched opponent Manuel Charr (21-1, 11 KO’s), stopping him in the 4th round after the 27-year-old Charr sustained a bad cut over his right eye in the 3rd.

Charr seemed to be getting into the fight a little at the time the fight was halted, as he was landing an occasional shot and was starting to put a great of pressure on the 41-year-old Vitali. Given his history of sustaining cuts over his eyes, it’s a huge mystery why Charr decided to fight defensively in the first three rounds. Charr covered up and circled the ring continuously to try and avoid getting hit by Vitali. It didn’t help much, because Vitali was still able to cut off the ring and punish Charr whenever he wanted.

Charr finally started to attack Vitali after having been cut in the 3rd, but by then it was clear that the fight wasn’t going to last much longer because of how much blood was coming from the cut.

Vitali knocked Charr down late in the 2nd round when Charr briefly tries to take the fight to him. Charr got out of position to where his head was bent down low after having missed a shot. Vitali then landed a chopping right hand that sent Charr down on the canvas.

In the 4th, the fight was stopped after the ringside doctor examined Charr’s cut eye and decided that it was too badly cut for the fight to continue. Charr then stormed around the ring in anger for the next 5 minutes while his training team attempted to cool him down.

Other action on the card:

Vyacheslav Glazkov UD 10 Konstantin Airich
Andrey Meryasev TKO 10 Muhitdin Rajapbaev
vacant WBC Baltic middleweight title
Ayup Arsaev RTD 4 Khavazhy Khatsyhau
Svetlana Kulakova UD 4 Iryna Bartash