Solis Stops Welliver – Boxing News

By Boxing News - 10/12/2008 - Comments

solis434454.jpgBy Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Odlanier Solis (12-0, 8 KOs) stopped American Chauncy Welliver (35-5-5, 12 KOs) in the 9th round on Saturday night at the O2 World Arena, Kreuzbert, in Berlin, Germany. Solis, 28, staggered Welliver with a hard combination in the 9th round, and then followed with a flurry of shots ending with the referee Daniel Van de Wiele stepping in and putting a stop to the fight at 1:23 of the round. Solis, the 2004 Olympic heavyweight Gold Medalist for the Cuban National team, showed little in the way of power during the fight and was forced to pound out the victory with an accumulation of blows to the head of Welliver.

At 6’2” 282 lbs, Welliver looked badly out of shape, yet he moved incredibly well around, in fact, much better than the similarly overweight Solis. Welliver fought really well in the 1st round, jabbing and hooking him to the head repeatedly. Solis, not the fastest of heavyweights, seemed slow to react to Welliver’s early attack and looked a little startled by the fury of Welliver’s early onslaught.

In the 2nd round, Solis fought a little better, landing some decent right hands to the head. However, he continued to take a lot of jabs and hooks from the much larger Welliver. Though listed as 6’1”, Solis looked at least three inches shorter than the 6’2” Welliver. Solis looked only slightly in better condition than Welliver, and the extra weight, some fifty plus pounds, that Solis has put on since winning the Gold medal in 2004, has made him slow, and plodding.

In rounds three and four, Solis plodded after Welliver, taking shots as he would come forward. When in range, Solis would fire off a couple of good shots, but his punches had little effect on Welliver. It was somewhat strange, because against the soft opposition that Solis had fought previous to this fight, most of his opponents would keel over after getting hit with a small number of shots from Solis in the first couple of rounds, yet Welliver took his punches without any visible effect.

This seemed to suggest that either Solis has now power or Welliver has a heck of a chin. However, Solis’ punches looked average to me, which makes me think that he doesn’t have the power that some people originally believed when they saw him in his earlier bouts.

In rounds five and six, Welliver’s punch output dropped off to next to nothing. He still had enough energy to throw his jabs, but little else. For the most part, Welliver looked tuckered out, perhaps from having to carry around his hefty 282 pounds around the ring on his short 6’2” frame.

He looked about 60 pounds overweight from my estimate, so it had to be tough on him to try and keep punching at a high rate for more than a round or two. Solis began to really step up the pace of his shots in the 6th, hitting Welliver over and over again, trying to take him out in an impressive fashion in front of the Berlin crowd. Welliver’s nose began to bleed in the round, no doubt a product of all the right hands he was getting hit with from Solis.

However, it didn’t seem to bother Welliver, as he continued urging Solis to come forward and engage with him. In rounds seven and eight, Welliver began to show swelling under both of his eyes, reddening at first and then starting to turn slightly purple. He continued throwing a lot of jabs. However, many of them picked up on the gloves of Solis but still quite a few getting through the Cuban’s guard.

By this point, Solis was just teeing off on him at will, throwing nonstop punches in a desperate attempt at getting him out of there. It was as late as Solis had ever fought in a bout before, and he wanted to impress the fans. In the 9th round, Solis continued unloading on Welliver with an avalanche of combinations until finally he struck pay dirt when he hurt him with a good left-right.

Welliver staggered back a step, at which point Solis threw a storm of shots to the head which Welliver seemed to take pretty well. However, referee Daniel Van de Wiele stepped in and halted the bout at this point, probably because Welliver wasn’t throwing anything back.