By Manuel Perez: In another bout involving a skilled but badly flawed former Cuban amateur star on Friday night, unbeaten heavyweight contender Odlanier Solis (13-0, 9 KOs) stopped American Kevin Burnett (13-2-1, 8 KOs) in the 8th round on Friday night at the Buffalo Bill’s Star Arena, Primm, Nevada. Solis, 28, the former heavyweight 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist for Cuba, staggered Burnett with a powerful left hand in the 8th round and then landed a right hand followed by a left hook to the head.
Referee Jay Nady then stepped in and halted the fight at 2:00 of the round to prevent Burnett from taking any more punishment. Burnett, 26, was badly hurt and continued to stagger around the ring for a brief spell afterwards. Solis, however, looked far from impressive in winning the fight, starting off with Solis’ high weight -a chubby 259 pounds.
The weight had the effect of slowing Solis down in the fight, making it necessary for him to take frequent breathers after expending energy throwing flurries. The extra weight also seemed to have a dramatic effect on his hand speed, slowing it down and making him a much more ponderous fighter. However, he still had way too much skill for the limited Burnett to handle and ended up easily beating the American.
In the 1st round, Solis ate a lot of jabs from the taller 6’7” Burnett. It lucky for Solis, though, that Burnett often failed to use his huge height advantage in the round, as he mostly stood too close to Solis when throwing his shots, allowing Solis to counter him with right hands and left hooks.
A minute into the round, Solis landed a flurry of shots to the head of Burnett. The punches seemed to have no effect on the huge Burnett, who took them without any problems. After throwing the shots, Solis looked gassed out, and needed the remainder of the round to recover from this brief expenditure of energy.
Burnett, not to waste an opportunity, took advantage of this by landing frequent jabs for the final two minutes. Solis looked poor and nothing like a top ranked fighter at this point in the fight.
In the 2nd and 3rd rounds, Solis continued to eat a lot of jabs from the taller Burnett. However, Solis made up for it by throwing short two-punch combinations which allowed him to win both rounds. Burnett tried to use his weight and tall frame to lean on Solis to try and tire him.
For this, Burnett received a warning from referee Jay Nady in the 2nd. In the 3rd, Solis hurt Burnett with a hard right hand as Burnett was coming forward trying to land a shot. Solis then landed a storm of shots trying to take Burnett out.
Unfortunately, the only thing that Solis accomplished was tiring himself out in the process, making it necessary to take the rest of the round off to catch his breath. It was a particularly sad picture as Solis looked like an old man for the remainder of the round, trying to catch his breath and taking a lot of jabs to the head.
Still tired from the previous round, Solis took the 4th round off, throwing few punches and eating a lot of jabs from Burnett. Solis did land a good left hand to the head of Burnett in the last middle of the round but that was about it.
Solis just looked too tired to carry around the extra fat that was wearing around his body.
Solis continued to look tired into the 5th round, doing little until the last minute of the round when he landed a big left hook to the head of Burnett. Solis timed Burnett perfectly, landing the left just as Burnett was getting ready to throw a right hand. The punch seemed to energize Solis for the remainder of the round as he landed some nice left hands and right uppercuts.
In rounds six and seven, Solis dominated the action, landing clean with big punches and looking as if he was trying to end the fight with one punch. Burnett took the shots well and continued throwing a lot of jabs, but he still was making the mistake of throwing the jabs while standing too close to the shorter Solis, allowing him to land counter shots.
In the 8th round, Burnett started off well throwing jabs and trying to keep Solis on the outside. However, Solis responded with a big left hook that staggered Burnett, causing him to back up a step. Solis then followed up with a right hand then another left hook-right hand, hurting Burnett badly. Referee Jay Nady then decided he’d seen enough and stepped in and halted the fight at 2:00 of the round.
All in all, pretty shoddy performance by Solis. This was a fight that most heavyweight contenders would have ended quickly, yet Solis had to struggle to beat Burnett. The extra weight, perhaps 30-40 pounds of blubber, seemed to hurt Solis and cause him to tire out much too frequently in the fight. If he’s at all serious about his boxing career, he needs to trim off all that lard and get down to a weight that’s reasonable for him. I think 200 to 210 pounds is where he needs to be, and honestly, he’s not nearly big enough to fight as a heavyweight.
Just four years ago, he weighed 200 in winning the Gold medal in the 2004 Olympics. Since then, he’s put on 59 pounds, most of which seems to be pure fat. Not sure what he’s been eating to put on that kind of weight but he needs to stop. If he was facing a good heavyweight like the Klitschko brothers on Saturday night, Solis would have likely lasted only a few rounds, if that. He just seems to be too short, too fat and not enough stamina to fight at a high level that he needs to be a future champion as far as I’m concerned.