Things you didn't know about Mahmoud Charr
'The Gypsy King' Tyson Fury is preparing to meet 'The Arab King' Mahmoud Charr on December 3rd at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, after negotiations with Anthony Joshua's team broke down.
But just who Fury's is 34th ring opponent?
BBN have found out a few facts on the Beirut-born boxer below:
He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, as Mahmoud Omeirat Charr on October 10, 1984.
As a young boy, he had to overcome hardship, fleeing from the Libyan civil war that claimed his father’s life.
He survived a bullet in the Libyan civil war when he was four years old.
He spent a total of four years in prison in Germany.
Charr was involved in a knife fight in August 2006 and charged with attempted murder, but the case was dismissed due to a lack of evidence.
His boxing alias is 'The Diamond Boy' but he also refers to himself as the 'Arab King'.
Mahmoud started his martial arts career with Thai boxing at the age of 17. Two years later he became the youngest ever German Champion in Muay Thai. In 2005 he became the German Champion and the European Champion in Thai-Boxing at the age of 19. Due to his track record in Thai-Boxing, in 2000 Mahmoud was invited to a training camp for professional boxers at the famous Max Schmeling Gym in Berlin. Here his professional boxing career started under the supervision of the famous German boxing coach Ulli Wegner.
At 21-0, Charr's biggest fight to date was on September 8, 2012, resulting in a fourth-round loss to Vitali Klitschko, but challenging for Fury's WBC crown would top that.
The former world champion held the WBA (Regular) heavyweight title from 2017 Nov 25 – 2021 Jan 29, that's 1162 days (3 years, 2 months) as champion without ever once defending the title!
On the 20th September 2018, it was reported that Charr tested positive for anabolic steroids. A urine sample in August came back positive for the banned substances epitrenbolone and drostanolone.
The 37-year-old survived an assassination attempt in 2015 when he was shot four times in the stomach and had to have two hip operations in one evening. He amazingly returned to the ring just nine months later.
A Facebook troll had been provoking the fighter online, posing videos of his losses on social media. But when Charr offered to face the man behind the screen in person, he was subject to a drive-by shooting in a kebab shop in Essen. He miraculously survived and lived to see his shooter, Youssef Hassan, sentenced to five years in prison.
Roll of Honour
2002 TeutoCup Champion in Germany
2003 District Champion in Germany
2004 Westfahlen Champion in Germany
2004 Western German Champion.
WBC International Silver heavyweight title
WBC Baltic heavyweight title
WBC Mediterranean heavyweight title
WBC CISBB heavyweight title
WBA International heavyweight title
WBA Regular heavyweight title
