While WBA heavyweight champion is pondering his future as it relates to his next fight, the Manuel Charr already has his next fight as the governing body's secondary world heavyweight champion.
Charr will fight longtime mandatory challenger Fres Oquendo on September 29 in Cologne, Germany, according to BILD. The fight will be for Charr's WBA "regular" heavyweight title and will fulfill the WBA's court-ordered obligation to give Oquendo a WBA title fight. According to the BILD article, Charr had surgery to repair an injured meniscus and the change in date gives Charr a chance to fully rehab the injury.
A purse bid had been ordered a few months ago to make the fight a reality. Originally, Oquendo's team won the purse bid and had originally decided to have the fight take place in Chicago on May 4 in Chicago. Financial troubles and other issues caused the fight to have to look for a new date and location which allowed Germany to swoop in and host the world title fight.
Charr won the then-vacant title when he defeated Alexander Ustinov late last year by unanimous decision after the fight was originally deemed a title eliminator with the winner facing Oquendo for the secondary title.
Oquendo has not fought since 2014 when he originally lost to Ruslan Chagaev by majority decision with the WBA "regular" title on the line. Oquendo was supposed to have fought for the title on a number of occasions in the past year, but issues arose in each fight. Oquendo was supposed to have fought Shannon Briggs for the belt last year, but Briggs failed a drug test and the fight got called off after Briggs was handed a six-month suspension.
