Weights: Solis 271, Barrett 218.5, Duddy 161, Martinez 160 – News

By Dave Lahr: Former 2004 Olympic heavyweight Gold Medalist Odlanier Solis (14-0, 10 KO’s) just keeps getting bigger and bigger. At today’s weigh-in, the 29-year-old former Cuban amateur boxing star weighed in a portly 271, an all time high for him for his scheduled 10 round bout against former heavyweight contender Monte Barrett.

For his part, Barrett came in at a light 218.5. But the 271 for Solis has me worried about him. He’s only 6’1″ and fought at 200 pounds only five years ago while in the amateurs. The weight that Solis has packed on since leaving Cuba obviously isn’t all muscle because his stomach looks like a big beer keg. I don’t know what Solis has been eating, but he needs to stop and soon.

Not only will Solis eat way out of boxing, but he’ll hurt himself physically if he gets much bigger and ends up with diabetes or heart disease. I don’t understand how the guy keeps getting bigger with every fight. Solis has been fighting at 250 and looking reasonably good for a fighter that appears to be carrying around 25 to 30 pounds of blubber on his frame.

But then in his last fight, Solis suddenly ballooned up to 262, and looked like a slob as he entered the ring against Dominique Alexander. Luckily for Solis, he was facing an easy opponent and quickly got him out of there in a hurry with a quick 1st round knockout. But if the fight had lasted, say, five or six rounds, I would have been worried whether Solis’ poor legs could have carried around all that fat for that amount of time.

I didn’t think that Solis’ management would allow him to get any bigger, but he certainly has, coming in at 271 for Barrett. This is weird, though, because Solis was previously training for a bout against Kevin Johnson, one of the best heavyweights in the division. How can Solis have been this big while training for such an important fight? Johnson would have destroyed Solis if the Cuban had come in as big as 271.

Either Solis was badly underestimating Johnson or as soon as he found out he wasn’t facing him, he must have started chowing on Snickers and M & Ms like they were going out of style. Seriously, though, that’s much too heavy for Solis.

I don’t care if he has quick hands. He can’t be carrying that much blubber on his small frame. He’s going to be like a walking refrigerator in there against Barrett. All Monte will have to do is use a little lateral movement, make Solis use his legs and tire the guy out in the later rounds and the fight is won for Barrett.

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Middleweight John Duddy (26-1, 17 KO’s) came in at 161 for his fight against Michi Martinez. This should be an easy fight for Duddy, unless he’s still haunted by his 10 round defeat at the hands of Billy Lyell in April. Martinez has lost two out of his last three fights by knockout to Vanes Martirosyan and Carson Jones. Both of them are probably harder punchers than Duddy, but he should still be able to get Martinez out of there unless he’s messed up from the loss to Lyell.

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