By Alexey Sukachev

The Vitali Klitschko vs. Manuel Charr showdown, scheduled to take place at Olimpiyskiy Sports Arena in Moscow, Russia, on September 8th - is a major event in the local boxing community.

The event will be headlined by a showdown for the WBC heavyweight championship between Ukrainian beltholder Klitschko (44-2, 40 KOs) and unbeaten German challenger Charr (21-0, 11 KOs).

The undercard will feature five championship bouts involving WBC regional titles. In quite a step up in class, Magomed Abdusalamov (15-0, 15 KOs) takes on Jameel McCline (41-12-3, 24 KOs) for a vacant WBC USNBC belt. Also, there will be at least four clashes for WBC Baltic titles in various weight classes (Maxim Vlasov – Khoren Gevor – 168 lbs, Andrey Meryasev – Muhitdin Rajapbaev – 160 lbs, Ayup Arsaev – Khavazhy Khatsygov – 126 lbs, and Konstantin Airich – Vyacheslav Glazkov – 200+ lbs).

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There’s more to it. The event will be highlighted with a number of stellar individuals. WBC president Jose Sulaiman will be there personally to head the World Boxing Council's team that is set to visit Moscow. He will be the honored guest of the show, which is partially dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Mexico-based sanctioning body. The show itself will be announced by the golden voice of boxing - Michael Buffer - who once again is going to conquer the Russian capital. His co-announcer, in Russian, will be local celebrity Alexander Zagorskiy.

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The organizers of the event will also gather an unprecedented pack of eleven world champions from the former Soviet republics. Contrary to a number of related news stories by Russian and foreign media sources, not all of the boxers are “Russians” or represented Russia in the ring, and this is not a full list of the Russian world champions (Denis Inkin, Zaurbek Baysangurov, Valery Brudov, Denis Lebedev and Alexander Povetkin haven’t made the list along with some other sound names from neighboring states).

The full list of the champions to visit the show is presented below:

1. Yuri Arbachakov (Russia) – WBC flyweight champion (1992-1997)

2. Orzubek Nazarov (Kyrgyzstan) – WBA lightweight champion (1993-1998)

3. Kostya Tszyu (Australia/Russia) – WBC/WBA/IBF/Undisputed light welterweight champion (1995-1997, 1999-2005)

4. Ahmed Kotiev (Russia) – WBO welterweight champion (1998-2000)

5. Anatoliy Alexandrov (Kazakhstan) – WBO super featherweight champion (1998-1999)

6. Roman Karmazin (Russia) – IBF light middleweight champion (2005-2006)

7. Nikolai Valuev (Russia) – WBA heavyweight champion (2005-2007, 2008-2009)

8. Oleg Maskaev (Russia/Kazakhstan) – WBC heavyweight champion (2006-2008)

9. Sultan Ibragimov (Russia) – WBO heavyweight champion (2007-2008)

10. Dmitry Kirillov (Russia) – IBF super flyweight (2007-2008)

11. Dmitry Pirog (Russia) – WBO middleweight champion (2010-…)

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A new and a pleasant addition to the show is a hot blonde with heavy hands. Svetlana Kulakova (4-0, 1 KO) is coming back to the boxing following a lengthy hiatus, which was induced by her pregnancy and a subsequent transition to kickboxing. Kulakova, 30, is going to fight either a Dominican or a Bulgarian opponent. Her comeback will be short-lived though, as she’s planning to transit back to K-1 after her September fight.

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The official schedule of pre-fight activities was announced on Wednesday, Aug. 29, by the media service of Olimpiyskiy.

The official presser will be conducted on Sep. 4 (Tuesday) at VGTRK TV centre. The presser starts at 1:45 PM LT.

On Sep. 5, both fighters will conduct their open-air workouts for the press and fans. Charr will be the first one to train under the lights. He is set to start at 0:30 PM LT. The champion will entertain the crowd half an hour after that.

The weigh-in will be conducted at 2 PM LT on Friday, Sep. 7, at Olimpiyskiy Sports Arena.

The show starts at 9 PM LT. Russia 2 will televise the event locally, while HBO will air the show in America on a delayed basis.