By Alexey Sukachev

It wasn't pretty but it was effective and it gave him the result. Heavyweight Manuel Charr (21-0, 11 KOs), The Diamond Boy of the now-troubled city of Homs, Syria, used his imposing physique to overpower slim Ukrainian veteran Taras Bidenko (28-5, 12 KOs) but his slow reflexes and his slow feet led him into a nightmare of pure boxing by the challenger, which he escaped but not without some aid from the judges, who awarded the local boy with a unanimous decision.

Charr started well. He stalked Bidenko with his thudding punches and he did it often. The Ukrainian ate a small number of these clean punches but he felt them and his own pitty-pat blows didn't do any damage to the Syrian. As the bout progressed, however, Charr became slower and slower with each fought round (much due to Ukrainian's nice bodypunching) while Bidenko increased his punch output even more. Thus the first three rounds could have been scored for the Syrian while the rest of the first half was mostly in Ukrainian's favour.

From round seven, the fight got more and more even. Charr's punches were harder but Bidenko was sharper and more active. He used his weak jab to pepper the Syrian's face and he added short hooks on ocassion. Charr fought in spurts and was specifically dangerous when he cornered the Ukrainian and landed clean punches to rock him there. However, those spurts weren't being done a regular basis. Bidenko clinched wisely and he also spit out his mouthpiece more than once to buy some time. Referee Massimo Barrovecchio didn't appreciate his efforts and deducted a point from the Ukrainian in round ten.

After everything was and done, all three judges - Vencislav Nicolov, Daniel Van De Wiele and Juergen Langos - scored the bout identically: 116-111 - for Charr. BoxingScene disagrees and scored the fight 114-115 - for the Ukrainian, who presented his fans with one of his finest performances in years. Meanwhile WBA #11, WBC #13 and IBF #14 Charr successfully retained his WBC International Silver title.

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World-ranked heavyweight Manuel Charr debuts as a promoter and continues to perform as a fighter during a self-promoted show at Maritim Hotel in Cologne, Germany. There are five contests in the card, and fights are just under way now.

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Germany-based Romanian Christian Hammer (11-3, 7 KOs) used less than 100 secs to completely vaporize hapless journeyman Alexander Kahl (18-8-1, 16 KOs). Hammer floored Kahl with a vicious combination and then finished him off moments later with and overhand right. Kahl beat the count of referee Arno Pokrandt but failed to answer a necessary question and the fight was waved off immediately after the count was over. Time was 1:39. Hammer retained his German International title in the fight.

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Earlier results:
Marietta Kowalczyk (1-1-1) MD 4 Jessica Heymann (0-0-1). Scores: 39-38, 38-38, and 38-38.
Denis Yilbay (3-0, 3 KOs) TKO 2 Suleyman Dag (9-32, 4 KOs). Dag was down three times in the fight. Time of stoppage: 2:54
Agit Kabayel (3-0, 2 KOs) TKO 3 Waldemar Pahl (0-2). Time of stoppage: 1:50

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