Tomorrow’s heavyweight clash between Manuel Charr and unbeaten puncher Christopher Lovejoy will go ahead as planned. A real oddity of a fight, one that is quite spuriously billed as a WBA world title fight, this is a match where no-one knows what to expect when the bell rings in Koln, Germany.
Right up to this week, plenty of people wondered if the fight would actually take place: would Don King, who jumped in and prevented Lovejoy from going ahead with his fight with Dave Allen some months back, step in once again?
But as of right now, the fight is indeed on. Both men have weighed-in. Charr came in a little above the 245-pound mark, while Lovejoy scaled an eye-catching 306 pounds. Lovejoy is a huge guy and he has a huge, 6’5” frame. Still, the 37-year-old wore a t-shirt when posing at today’s official weigh-in. Charr, a year the younger man at 36, looked in fine shape.
Lovejoy has predicted a KO win, while Charr says he will silence his challenger. There appears to be some genuine bad blood between the two men. But what an odd fight this one is. Charr has not boxed since November of 2017, while Lovejoy hasn’t fought anybody of note – not a single opponent. Can Lovejoy really fight? He can punch, but can Lovejoy take a good shot? Can he fight hard for 12 rounds if need be? We may or may not find out tomorrow. How much has Charr, 31-4(17) got left? How will the inactivity affect him?
Really, anything could happen in tomorrow’s fight. Lovejoy, 19-0 with all wins coming via the short route, hasn’t been too active himself, last fighting in January of 2020; this against a 12-15-7 guy (before that, Lovejoy took out a fighter with a record of 6-50-2). It may come down to who lands a good shot first wins the fight. Charr Vs. Lovejoy is a joke of a “world” heavyweight title fight but this does not mean the action has to be poor. As maligned as this match-up is, let’s hope it does result in a good fight.
BILDplus will televise the fight in Germany. For the rest of us, we may or may not get the opportunity to catch the action live. I must confess a curiosity, and I’m interested to see what happens. Again, can Lovejoy, a big guy with a big punch (at a certain level at least) really fight?