Odlanier Solis vs. Leif Larsen on March 22nd in Berlin Germany

By Boxing News - 03/05/2013 - Comments

solis3444545By Scott Gilfoid: 32-year-old Cuban heavyweight Odlanier Solis (18-1, 12 KO’s) returns to the ring on March 22nd against the hard hitting unbeaten prospect/project Leif Larsen (17-0, 14 KO’s) at the Universal Hall in Berlin, Germany. Solis is currently the IBF Inter-Continental heavyweight champion, so he’ll have that little known strap on the line for his fight against the 6’4” Larsen.

Larsen, 37, previously played in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills in 2000 and 2001 as a defensive tackle. He also played college football at the University of Texas-El Paso. Larsen is getting up there in age, but he’s still a really big puncher. That’s the whole attraction about the guy. Larsen is terribly flawed in terms of boxing skills, but he’s got very real power, and if he’s able to connect with his big power shots against Solis, we could see a knockout.

I rate Larsen’s punching power as being just as good as WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. The difference here is that Larsen doesn’t have Vitali’s huge 6’7” height, reach and defensive skills going for him. He can be hit. If Solis is able to weather the storm in the first three rounds, he should be able to score a stoppage against Larsen after he fades.

However, Solis is going to have to be careful because Larsen will be dangerous up until he runs out of gas, whenever that is. Larsen has never gone past the 5th round, so it’s hard to say specifically in what round he’ll run out of gas. All I know is he better hope he can stop Solis with a big shot because if he doesn’t then he’s going to be in for a world of hurt in this fight.

In recent photos of Solis, he’s looking flabby, which for him is normal, I guess. In his last fight in May of last year, Solis weighed an incredibly fat 267 ½ pounds in beating Konstantin Airich by a 12 round unanimous decision.

The fat was literally hanging over Solis’ boxing trunks, and he looked really top heavy due to all the fat that accumulated in his upper body during his 14 months away from the ring following his 1st round knockout loss to Vitali Klitschko in March of 2011.

Solis injured his right knee in that fight, and he subsequently needed three surgeries to repair the knee. All that time off led to Solis putting on massive amounts of weight, and that’s why he looked so flabby when he did return to the ring. It’s surprising that he decided not to fight again for the rest of the year in 2012 because should have.



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