Kubrat Pulev (32-3, 14 KOs) finally captured his first major title with a 12-round unanimous decision victory over WBA “regular” champion Mahmoud Charr (34-5, 20 KOs) on Saturday night. at Arena Sophia in Sofia, Bulgaria.
One sided deal
The 43-year-old Pulev showed off his excellent amateur pedigree, using his jab and wide clubbing punches to knock down the ring-rusty Charr in every round of the fight. It was pure dominance from the 2008 Olympian Pulev, who still has his skills intact.
Charr took a lot of punishment in this fight and looked beaten around the face by the tenth round. It looked like he had passed a major test taking all the heavy punches from Pulev, as well as nice jabs. Pulev, 6’5″, always had an outstanding jab, and still does. He had used it as a power shot tonight, nailing Charr repeatedly.
The scores
– 117-111
– 117-111
– 116-112
Charr made the mistake of using Pulev as his first opponent coming off a two-year layoff, and in retrospect, he should have opted for an easier one.
It will be interesting to see if Pulev can transmute his “regular” WBA heavyweight title into a big payday fighting the winner of the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksander Usyk rematch. That would be a dream come true because the money would be nice for Pulev. A match against Jake Paul would also be excellent.
