By Dan Ambrose: World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (41-2, 38 KO’s) will be making his 6th title defense of his WBC belt on March 19th against 2004 Olympic heavyweight gold Medalist for Cuba Odlanier Solis (17-0, 12 KO’s) at the Lanxess-Arena, Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Vitali, 39, usually likes to rake his opponents over the coals during his press conferences with them, often embarrassing them with comments or actions.

However, Vitali is suddenly turning on the charm and saying nice things about his opponents and future opponents and that seems very unlike Vitali. At today’s press conference with the 30-year-old Solis, Vitali said “I have fought a lot of strong opponents but I have never been in the ring with an Olympic Gold Medalist. I expect a very tough and close fight against a very talented boxer whom comes to take the belt from me. I won’t let that happen, though. I will show why I am the champion and defend my title.”

It looks like Vitali is bending over backwards to try and make the short and fat Solis sound better than he actually is. Solis may have been an excellent amateur, but his lack of discipline in the pro ranks has really hurt him by the way that he’s put on 60 pounds of fat since leaving the amateur ranks. As an amateur, Solis fought at 200 and was incredibly fast and powerful. As a pro, Solis now routinely weighs in the neighborhood of 260, and it doesn’t look like muscle. Solis is reportedly doing hours and hours of roadwork each day to try trim off the blubber to get in shape for the Vitali fight. However, if he’s still eating a lot at home after his training sessions, he’s probably not going to be making a lot of progress in trimming off the lard. You have to wonder why Solis has been unable to take off the fat during his previous training camps. He’s not doing something right.