Heavyweight veterans Mahmoud Charr and Kubrat Pulev will face each other on March 30th in Pulev’s home country of Bulgaria at the Sofia Arena in the country’s capital of Sofia. German WBA ‘regular’ beltholder Charr will put his title on the line against Pulev and is set to make his return from a long lapse of inactivity, having not competed since December of 2022.

39-year old Mahmoud Charr (34-4, 20 KO’s), previously known as Manuel Charr, will be engaged in the first defense of his WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight title since it was granted to him last year following a settlement with the WBA in court. While it had been stipulated that Charr would need to face Jarrell Miller (26-1, 22 KO’s) before October 14th upon receiving his WBA title, however, Miller’s appearance on the December 23rd cross-promotional fight card made it difficult for the Charr-Miller fight to occur before its deadline.

With Miller subsequently being removed from the top 10 WBA heavyweight rankings following his December 23rd loss to Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KO’s), 42-year old Kubrat Pulev (30-3, 24 KO’s) has now come into the picture as a viable challenger for Charr to face.

Both fighters will head into the ring with plenty of experience, having both competed in world title fights at some point in the past; with Charr contending for then-WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko while Pulev challenged for a world title twice when he faced Vitali’s brother Wladimir Klitschko in 2014, and Anthony Joshua (27-3, 24 KO’s) in 2020. Pulev is currently ranked #10 on the WBA’s heavyweight rankings.

Though the fight will involve the WBA’s lesser version of a world title, the ‘regular’ belt, there may lie an opportunity for the winner to face the holder of the WBA ‘super’ heavyweight title in the future―though this opportunity is subject to timing as the ‘super’ title can still change hands, and a mandated title fight between the ‘regular’ and ‘super’ beltholders was already held last year in August.

Nonetheless, the two aged heavyweights are expected to put up a fascinating bout as they seek to re-establish the heavyweight landscape by grabbing an important victory over the other.