WBA "regular" heavyweight champion Mahmoud "Manuel" Charr (31-4) has joined forces with EC Boxing in Hamburg. Charr is looking forward to defend the title and is targeting Andy Ruiz Jr and then Tyson Fury.
Charr holds the regular version of the title while Anthony Joshua is "super" champion, Trevor Bryan is interim-champion and Robert Helenius is the WBA's "Gold" champion.
"I am sure that Erol, with his close ties to the United States, is the right partner by my side," said Charr. "I would like to box against Andy Ruiz and then target Tyson Fury."
Mahmoud has held his part of the title since 2017 even though he did lose it after a positive doping test in 2018. That case was however appealed, Charr won the case and he was reinstated as champion. He has however been inactive since beating Alexander Ustinov in November of 2017.
"Mahmoud was and is always part of the ECB family. We are currently restructuring our stable, aligning ourselves strategically. Following Victor Faust's commitment, we now have Mahmoud, a reigning heavyweight world champion. We are very well positioned and I am is convinced that he will soon have big fights," said promoter Erol Ceylan.
There's been a lot of plans made for a title defence though and earlier this year Don King Productions won purse bids for Charr to defend the title against Trevor Bryan in May - which never came around due to the coronavirus pandemic. Charr-Bryan was before that also scheduled for November 2 of 2019, in Kinshasa, but for some reasons the plans fell through.
Before that there was a fight against Fres Oquendo lingering for a long time.
The 36-year old Charr turned pro with Sauerland Event back in 2005 and joined Spotlight Boxing in 2008 and challenged Vitali Klitschko for the WBC title in 2015 but was TKO'd in four rounds. A one punch knockout loss to current WBO cruiserweight king Mairis Briedis in 2017 seemed to spell the end for Charr as a contender but after beating Andrei Mazanik and Sefer Seferi he was back in the picture and won the WBA 'regular' title by beating Alexander Ustinov.
When, where and against who Charr will defend his part of the title will be announced at a later date, but there will certainly not be a lack of challengers.
