LONDON: Manuel Charr, the world’s first Arab heavyweight boxing champion, will make the first defense of his WBA title this spring and move one step closer to a super fight with the division’s highest-profile fighters.
The Lebanese-German will fight mandatory challenger Fres Oquendo on May 4 in Chicago after Oquendo’s camp successfully bid for the promotional rights to the fight. POW Sports, which is part of Oquendo’s team, bid $600,000 to easily beat a $101,000 offer from Charr’s camp at the WBA purse bid. The fighters will split the winning bid 50-50. Confirmation of the winning bid comes almost three months after the WBA first initiated negotiations for their fight, but an inability to come to an agreement meant that purse bids were then ordered.
Charr and his promoters had hoped to stage the fight on April 7 in Cologne, given Germany is where he has mostly fought, but he will now fight outside of Europe for the first time.
“It is always better to fight in front of your home fans, but Chicago is a beautiful city, and I have many fans in the United States, so I am looking forward to the fight,” said Charr. “I know and respect Fres. If I have to beat him in front of his home crowd, then so be it. I hope that many fans will come to support me. It will be a great experience and hopefully an exciting fight.”
Charr was born in Beirut but raised in Germany from the age of five. He dedicated his title win over Alexander Ustinov in November “to Germany, the country which gave me a chance and built me up.”
“Of course, we would have loved to stage the fight in Germany, but we are also happy to travel to Chicago,” said Bernd Trendelkamp, Charr’s promoter. “We always knew that there was a risk we would lose the bid but we had planned to bring Manuel to the States anyways. Now we don’t have to pay for it and promote ourselves so we are very happy with the outcome.”
Charr, 33, has won 31 of his 35 fights, including 17 by knockout, and he will be the favorite against Oquendo, who will turn 45 a month before the fight and who has, partly owing to injury, been inactive since July 2014 when he lost a majority decision to Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Chagaev.
Oquendo earned the status of mandatory challenger with the WBA through a federal court order he pursued after not being given the rematch with Chagaev he had been promised.
Victory in Chicago — where, incidentally, there had been interest in staging the World Boxing Super Series final between Oleksandr Usyk and Murat Gassiev scheduled for Jeddah on May 11 — will take either Charr or Oquendo into contention for an eventual fight with IBF and WBA super heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, or another of the division’s highest-profile fighters.
The returning Tyson Fury has already called out Charr. “Tell me I’m not gonna take over the division once again!” tweeted Fury last month. “Wilder AJ Parker Charr watch out as the boggy man is coming for you! I’ll see you in your nightmares! GYPSYKING WILL REIGN OVER THE WORLD.”
Charr’s rise up the rankings, to hold one of the heavyweight belts, is remarkable when you consider the setbacks he has had to overcome. He was stabbed in the back at the age of 16 and then, in September 2015, he was left fighting for his life after being shot in the stomach following an altercation at a kebab restaurant. He returned to the ring just seven months later, bearing the scars of the attack on his abdomen. Then came another setback earlier last year when both hips had to be replaced.
Arab puncher Manuel Charr ready to beat Fres Oquendo in his own backyard
Arab puncher Manuel Charr ready to beat Fres Oquendo in his own backyard
PSG star Hakimi faces trial for alleged rape
- The 27-year-old Moroccan international denies any wrongdoing
- “I contest it and everything proves that it is false,” Hakimi wrote on X
PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain footballer Achraf Hakimi, a key player in their Champions League-winning side last season, is to stand trial charged with raping a young woman, his lawyer and a French prosecutor told AFP Tuesday.
In February 2023, a woman then aged 24 told police in Val-De-Marne southeast of Paris that Hakimi had raped her.
The 27-year-old Moroccan international, who played a pivotal role in Morocco becoming the first African and Arab side to reach the World Cup semifinals when they made the last four in 2022, denies any wrongdoing.
“Today, a rape accusation is enough to justify a trial, even though I contest it and everything proves that it is false,” he wrote on X on Tuesday.
“I await this trial calmly, which will allow the truth to come out publicly.”
Hakimi’s lawyer Fanny Colin said a trial had been ordered and the prosecutor in the Nanterre suburb of Paris confirmed it.
“A trial has been ordered on the basis of an accusation that rests solely on the word of a woman who obstructed all investigations, refused all medical examinations and DNA tests, refused to allow her mobile phone to be examined, and refused to give the name of a key witness,” Colin said.
The plaintiff said she met Hakimi in January 2023 on Instagram and went to his home in a taxi ordered by the player, a police source said at the time.
She claimed that the player kissed her, touched her without her consent and then raped her.
She said she managed to push him away and text a friend, who came to pick her up.
PSG coach Luis Enrique when asked about it at Tuesday’s press conference, ahead of the Champions League play-off second leg match with Monaco, said: “This matter is in the hands of the authorities.”
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Rachel-Flore Pardo, said her client was relieved to hear the case was going to court.
She said the judiciary had been exemplary in handling the case.
But its treatment in general showed “there are still areas where the #MeToo movement has not yet breached the sound barrier, chiefly in men’s football,” she added.
Hakimi, born in Spain to a Moroccan mother, trained with Real Madrid making his senior debut for them in 2017.
He was also one of Morocco’s superstars during the Africa Cup of Nations, with the host team making it to the final where they lost in a chaotic climax to the tournament to Senegal.
Hakimi joined PSG in 2021, after stints with Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan.
