WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (41-2, 38 KO’s) will be facing yet another over-matched mediocre challenger, this one the fat 260+ pound unbeaten Odlanier Solis (17-0, 12 KO’s) in his next title defense next year. Solis, 30, recently defeated 40-year-old Ray Austin by a 10th round disqualification on December 17th. Solis looked slow, fat and stamina-plagued. Other than a knockdown in the 5th, Solis disappeared for rounds at a time and just took punishment from Austin until finally summoning up enough energy to throw a series of shots in the 10th that hurt Austin.
This is a big step down from Vitali from fighters like Chris Arreola and Samuel Peter. Solis may have been a good fighter in the 2004 Olympics, but he’s put on 60 pounds of fat since then and the weight causes him to labor if he fights hard for more than one round. When Solis gasses out, he stays tired for long stretches. It’s unfortunate that Solis only had to prove himself against weak heavyweights like Austin and Monte Barrett to get his title shot against Klitschko, because he would have likely been easily beaten and eliminated if he had fought someone with skills like Alexander Povetkin or Denis Boytsov.
If you want to see anything good in this fight it’s that after Vitali destroys Solis, the heavy Cuban will be sent back down in the pack where he’ll be forced to fight it out against better heavyweights if he wants to get another shot. I can’t see Solis beating quality fighters and with this big payday he’ll be getting for the Vitali bout, Solis will likely eat his way to 300 and will have huge problems taking that kind of tonnage off.
Source: http://www.boxingnews24.com
No comments:
Post a Comment