World championship boxing on your screens
International boxing returns in a big way to SuperSport this weekend with two major world championship fights to be broadcast.
In Moscow on Saturday night, Vitali Klitschko (44-2, 40 KOs) will be defending his WBC title against unbeaten challenger Manuel Charr (21-0, 11 KOs).
The fight will be broadcast on SuperSport 7 from 10:45pm (CAT,SA, GMT+2), although the entire tournament will be broadcast from the start on SSHD2 from 7pm.
It could well be Klitschko’s last fight if he gets elected to office in the Ukrainian parliamentary elections next month.
Klitschko has slowed down in the past 12 months, but Lebanon-born Charr brings little to the fight other than youth and reasonable power.
He’s waltzed through tame opposition, but hasn’t fought anyone in the top 15 to suggest he has enough ammunition to trouble Klitschko.
On Sunday morning, SA time, budding superstar Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KOs) defends his super-middleweight crown against light-heavyweight king Chad Dawson (31-1, 17 KOs) in California.
SuperSport 2 will cross to the tournament at 4am on Sunday.
Both fighters are in their prime, with Ward, the 2004 Olympic champion, unbeaten in 16 years. Last year he laid claim to being the No 1 fighter in his division when he overwhelmed Carl Froch to win the Super Six super-middleweight tournament.
Fast and slick, Ward will meet a similar opponent in master boxer Dawson, fresh off a defeat of Bernard Hopkins.
It’s a superb matchup between two outstanding talents; rare in this age of promoters over-protecting their boxers.
“It’s a fight I know I can win,” said Dawson. “I have every advantage. He makes a lot of mistakes . . . it’s my job to make him pay for those mistakes.”
Ward is nonplussed. “I respect my opponent, I understand who I’m fighting. I’m looking forward to a tremendous fight. Once again, I got another great competitor at the other end of the ring, but I plan on getting my hand raised.”
