English, who has dueled with King over many of the biggest fights in recent boxing history, was predictably savage in Charr's opposition papers submitted to the WBA. English wrote: "We have been dealing with Don King for nearly 40 years. Nothing is ever his fault; it is always the fault of another. The truth here is that King loves options he can weasel his way out of. He was unable to get an option [to promote future Charr fights] here, and he was bound by the [purse] bid he made. He simply does not wish to reach into his pocket and pay the purses he committed to at the time of the bid. It is abundantly clear that Mr. Charr is available [to fight] and that DKP simply does not want to go forward and is making excuses. One does not need to be a genius to understand what the plan here was. King was slow walking his visa responsibilities [to permit Charr to enter the United States from Germany]. He then intended to come to the WBA when the visa did not come through and, through crocodile tears, claim that Mr. Charr was unavailable. However, when President Biden removed the Muslim ban, Mr. Charr was unwilling to leave matters in the hands of Mr. King and went to the U.S. consulate, foiling King’s Machiavellian plan. To suggest that a Bryan-Stiverne bout is of significance to the boxing world, as [King's attorney] does in his letter, is laughable. As noted, Stiverne is not even a ranked contender. The WBA will be a laughingstock if this application is granted and will put itself in legal jeopardy. Mr. King is and was unwilling to live up to the terms of the purse bid. He defaulted in March of 2020 and he is defaulting again.This special permit request should not be granted. The WBA should not put itself in the position of being a co-conspirator with Mr. King. King has once again defaulted on his obligations."

 

With respect to the specifics of Charr's claimed inability to come to Florida and defend his title, Charr's response to the WBA was very precise: "The application by DKP for Bryan to fight Stiverne is based upon a lie. To put it very directly, Mr. Charr is available and has done absolutely everything he was supposed to do. At this point he has picked up his visa.  He has taken two VADA tests. He has submitted his medical [records]. He has taken a Covid test so he can fly. Flight information has been provided to DKP so it could be booked and when they did not book the flight, [Charr] booked [it] himself. He was eager to defend his title against Mr. Bryan. This application was transmitted after DKP knew of Mr. Charr’s availability and after that availability had been publicly published." 

 

English then sought to blame King for the fiasco: "What has not been done is the return of a timely countersigned contract from Mr. King and the making of flight arrangements by him, [which is] the Promoter’s responsibility.  It was the responsibility of DKP to obtain a visa for Mr. Charr, but he took matters into his own hands when it became clear that DKP was not going to do so and [Charr] went to the consulate himself. [On] Friday of last week, DKP was informed of the status as was the WBA [that Charr picked up his visa."

 

BOXINGTALK'S PRIOR COVERAGE:

JAN. 25, 2021: Don King Productions has applied to the WBA asking that regular heavyweight champion Mahmoud Charr be stripped or demoted to "champion in recess" so that Trevor Bryan and Bermane Stiverne can fight for the vacant title on Friday in Florida. The request was immediately opposed by Charr's attorney, Patrick English. "This is a fraud. Don King knows Charr is available. Charr signed the contract but DKP never sent it back [countersigned]. DKP never arranged for any flights for Charr even though the contract he signed required it."  Boxingscene reports that Charr has obtained a visa to come to the United States, but it was unclear at the moment whether he will be getting on a plane.

Don King personally signed an application to the WBA asking for "sanctioning of the bout between [Trevor] Bryan and Bermane Stiverne for the WBA world heavyweight championship, while placing Mahmoud Charr as champion in recess for his unavailability or in the alternative removing his designation as world champion."

The idea of Bermane Stiverne fighting for any kind of a title, even this secondary one, is abhorrent to any fan of boxing. Stiverne has not won a professional boxing match since 2015, and since then, he has been knocked out twice, looking so dreadful in those losses that it is debatable whether he should even be licensed to box. 

Neither Bryan nor Charr are active either. Bryan's last fight was a 2018 win over BJ Flores in which he became the WBA's interim, or third-tier title holder. Charr's last fight was a 2017 win over Alexander Ustinov in which he became athe WBA's regular, or second-tier title holder (Besides Bryan and Charr, the WBA also recognizes Anthony Joshua as the super champion).

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JAN.  14, 2021: A very amateurish 100-second video posted to Don King's website promised that a Mahmoud Charr vs. Trevor Bryan heavyweight bout will take place on Friday, January 20th at the "Hard Rock Casino" [presumably the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida]. The video said the fight will be shown on pay-per-stream at donkingtv.com. For the undercard, the announcer mispronounced Beibut Shumenov's name, promising that "Babeat Shoe" will be facing Raphael Murphy. The pay-per-stream card will also feature Don King reminiscing about some great fights of the past, such as Holmes-Cooney. Let's just say the video did nothing to convince the many doubters that King has no intention of actually going through with the card. In fact, Vada, the drug-testing organization tweeted that, "Don King Promotons has asked VADA to not enter Raphael Murphy & Beibut Shumenov into our program at this time."

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