Solis vs. Botha On May 30th

By Boxing News - 05/15/2008 - Comments

solis-bates341.jpgBy Scott Gildfoid: In somewhat of a disappointing move, former 2004 Cuban Olympic heavyweight Gold Medalist Odlanier Solis (9-0, 6 KOs) will be reportedly fighting former heavyweight contender Francois Botha (45-4-2, 28 KOs) on May 30th in Spain. The fight would have meant much more say five years ago when Botha was still fighting regularly, but since that time the 39 year-old Botha has fought only one time and clearly isn’t the same fighter he was in his prime. This seems to be a case of Solis fighting a named fighter so as to increase the Cuban’s stature in the division.

Despite winning the Gold Medal in 2004, Solis has still done little as of yet, mostly fighting soft opposition. In his toughest fight to date against 6’4” Cisse Salif in March, Solis struggled badly, missing often and having problems with Salif’s size. To be sure, Solis, a smallish heavyweight at 6’0”, looked horrible in the bout and nothing like a future champion. If not for Salif’s lack of offense, this would have easily have been a loss for Solis, who looked like he didn’t belong in the same ring with Salif. I had expected that Solis would continue moving up against better opposition after the Salif fight, but he immediately went back to fighting C-class opponents in his next bout, a fight against a badly overmatched Georgian fighter Mamuka Jikurashvili, who Solis dropped three times with body shots en route to a 2nd round TKO in April.

Rather than moving back up to a fighter that could at least give him a test, Solis has elected to take on former trial horse Botha, who has been largely inactive for the past five years. From my perspective, this isn’t a fight that’s going to give Solis much other than a win and a name on his record. Botha would have been a good test for him years ago but now it won’t even be close. Heck, Botha might have been able to beat him in his prime but it’s doubtful he has much left at 39, and will serve as nothing more than a punching bag for the 28 year-old Solis to look good against.

I suppose one can’t blame Solis’ management for placing him in against Botha, because it would probably be too dangerous to pit him against a top 15 opponent, in particular after Solis’s disappointing performance against Salif in March. At 28, Solis isn’t going to get much better and has already been fighting for a long time as an amateur, and can’t be considered a young fighter. For that reason, he needs to be pushed a lot faster than the average up and coming boxer. He’s had issues with his weight since turning professional last April, gaining 50 lbs since winning the Gold medal in the 2004 Olympics and much of it looking as if it’s fat.

He had been said to have been taking off weight recently, trying to trim down the spare tire around his waist, but in his last fight against Jikurashvili. Solis appeared to have gained it all back once again. I see this as being a problem for him and I doubt that he’ll make much of a concerted effort to continue taking off weight, likely because of the danger of his strength dropping off with any significant weight loss that he makes. That’s the danger or putting weight on in the first place, for once it’s there it’s difficult to take off without having a weakening effect on a fighter. Hence they often decide on staying overweight rather than losing weight and seeing their power dip.

In Solis’s case, his extra weight has made him somewhat portly, which as of yet (other than his fight with Salif) hasn’t been a problem for him due to his mediocre opposition that has been fed to him. However, once Solis is put in against a big heavyweight with skills, we’ll likely see his portly body give him problems. A fighter like Tony Thompson and Wladimir Klitschko, would easily pick Solis apart from a distance, taking advantage of his short reach, lack of power and high weight. One hopes that once Solis gets past Botha that he’ll soon start stepping it up against better fighters, preferably ones with enough skills for Solis to learn something.

Ideally, Solis needs to move down to the cruiserweight division where he would have a much better chance at winning a title. Eventually, he’s going to run into problems in the heavyweight division due to his limited size and power. Plus, his weight issues will likely have the effect of shortening his career in the heavyweight division due to the problems that occur with being overweight – diabetes, injuries, to name just a couple.



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