By Pete Strauss: Tonight’s fight between Trevor Bryan and Bermane Stiverne will be for the vacant WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight title after the World Boxing Association made Manuel Charr ‘champion in Recess.’
Bryan and Stiverne will be battling it out tonight on FITE TV for the less than prestigious secondary WBA heavyweight strap at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Florida. This is a Don King promotion.
Earlier today, Bryan and Stiverne both weighed in at 267 pounds at their weigh-in. That’s 30 pounds heavier than the 236-lbs that Bryan weighed for his last fight against BJ Flores.
It’s unclear whether Bryan wasn’t able to train properly because of the pandemic or if he’s been hitting the weights hard in the last three years.
The 267 that Stiverne weighed is slightly lighter than the 273 lb that he weighed in for his last fight two years ago against Joe Joyce in 2019. Stiverne looked terrible in that fight, getting punched around the ring by the 2016 Olympic silver medalist Joyce until the fight was halted in the sixth round.
Michael Benson is reporting the news of the WBA having given four-year champion ‘Diamond Boy’ Charr (31-4, 17 KOs) the ‘Champion in Recess’ tag, which clears the way for Stiverne and Bryan to fight for the vacant secondary title.
While it might bother some boxing fans that the WBA has decided to sanction the fight between Bryant and Stiverne to be for their ‘regular’ heavyweight title, it would have looked just as bad if Charr had taken the fight against Bryan.
Charr has NEVER defended his WBA title after capturing the vacant belt four years ago in beating Alexander Ustinov by a 12 round unanimous decision in November 2017.
It’s baffling that the WBA didn’t strip Charr years ago after he failed to defend his secondary heavyweight title. For some reason, the WBA has let the German-based Charr sit on their title for all these years, and it’s been a big waste.
Interestingly, the unbeaten 31-year-old Bryan hasn’t fought in three years since his fourth-round unanimous win over BJ Flores in 2018.
The 42-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion ‘B-Ware’ Stiverne (25-4-1, 21 KOs) hasn’t won a fight in six years since beating Derric Rossy by a 10-round unanimous decision in 2015. Additionally, Stiverne has lost his last two fights to Joe Joyce and Deontay Wilder by knockout.
It’s scary to think that the winner of the Bryan vs. Stiverne fight could one day be ordered to fight the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury fight. It would be incredibly difficult to try and sell a fight of that nature to the general public.
The WBA would do the sport of boxing a good service if they discontinued their ‘regular’ and ‘Gold’ champions and just had one champion. Robert Helenius is currently the WBA Gold heavyweight champion.