(Photo credit: KMG/Michael Sterling) By John F. McKenna (McJack): WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (44-2, 40 KO’s) will be taking on the undefeated but largely unknown Manuel Charr (21-0, 11 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Olympiyskiy Arena in Moscow. At this point it is unknown whether Charr will be Klitschko’s last opponent before he retires to go into the political arena.

“Dr. Ironfist” has taken a considerable amount of heat for taking on the lightly regarded Charr. In fairness to Vitali however, his manager Bernd Boente had attempted to line up a match with former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s). Haye however opted to take on Dereck Chisora (15-4, 9 KO’s) who gave a good account of himself against Vitali last February.

The “Hayemaker” resurrected his career in a big way after his humiliating loss to WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO and Ring heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (58-3, 51 KO’s) in July 2011 when he impressively stopped Chisora in the 5th round in July. Haye demonstrated to his fans and the boxing world that he still has explosive KO power.

Haye’s stoppage of Chisora was all the more impressive because of Vitali’s inability to stop “Del-Boy” over the course of twelve rounds. It should be noted that Klitschko suffered a shoulder injury in the 3rd round against Chisora which made it difficult for him to use his left hand for the remainder of the fight. Still it must be conceded by almost everyone that “Del-Boy” is rugged and takes a pretty good shot.

Manuel Charr is also very rugged being built somewhat like a tank. He has an aggressive style of relentlessly boring in while unloading on his opponents. He scored a 7th round TKO win in June 2011 over a badly faded Danny Williams. There is nothing to suggest that “Diamond Boy” as his fans call him should be in the same ring with a prime Vitali Klitschko. That’s the rub. It’s difficult to determine whether Vitali has slipped as much as his detractors maintain. Most of Klitschko’s detractors base their assessments of Vitali on his performance against Chisora, not taking into account his shoulder injury.

In his previous fight against Tomasz Adamek (46-2, 28 KO’s) last September, Vitali was at the top of his game. His reflexes were superb and he gave no indication that he was slowing down. Many boxing pundits from around the globe are eager to predict the downfall of the elder Klitschko every time he steps into the ring. So far they have been wrong.

Although Charr appears to really think he has a shot at upsetting Klitschko there is no evidence to indicate that he has the skills to pull it off. It should be noted that Vitali was never noted to be a polished boxer. He has always relied on his mental and physical toughness along with his bludgeoning punches to achieve his objectives. Charr’s major drawback is that he has never been in the ring with anyone who is even remotely close to Klitschko’s skill level.

In all probability Manuel Charr will join a long list of heavyweight fighters who thought they had a shot at shocking the world against Vitali, only to find out after two or three rounds that they were hopelessly outclassed. Meanwhile Klitschko’s detractors will fade into the woodwork emerging only when and if he fights again.