By Eric Thomas: The latest heavyweight to come out of the woodwork to step in for David Haye as IBF/World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko’s next opponent for his June 20th bout is heavyweight prospect Odlanier Solis (13-0, 9 KO’s), who is very interested in taking on Wladimir and feels that he can beat the giant Ukrainian if given the chance.
Solis, 29, a former 2004 heavyweight Olympic Gold Medalist for the Cuban National team and three time world amateur champion, points to his 3rd round stoppage over Haye in the 2001 World amateur championship as proof that he can beat Wladimir as well.
Indeed, as an amateur athlete Solis was almost impossible to beat in his weight class. However, Solis, 6’1 ½” has put on close to 50 pounds since turning professional in 2007, and not all of it muscle and has moved up against bigger fighters from the 200 pound weight class that he fought in the Olympics.
It was thought that Solis was trying to take off some weight so that he could be a little more effective as he got down to as low as 246 last year. However, Solis’ last fight, an 8th round stoppage victory over Kevin Burnett in January 2009, Solis was back up in weight coming in at a whopping 259 pounds.
For a fighter that is only 6’1”, that’s a lot of weight for him to be lugging around with him. Up to this point it hasn’t mattered much how much Solis comes in at for his fights because he’s fought mostly all lower level talent and no one good enough to give him any real kind of a challenge the way Wladimir would be if he were to agree to a fight with Solis.
Don’t get me wrong. I think Solis is a good heavyweight even with all the extra blubber on his frame, and I think he’s probably still good enough to beat heavyweights like David Haye, Chris Arreola and Kevin Johnson, but I don’t see Solis as being in the class of a fighter like Wladimir.
That won’t stop him from being selected as an opponent for Wladimir if he decides that he would be a good choice, but given the slow progress that Solis has made in his two years as a pro, I can’t see Klitschko selecting him as an opponent regardless of Solis’ obvious talent and amateur pedigree.
Wladimir needs an opponent that will catch the boxing public’s eye so that they will want to take a chance on seeing the fight. Wladimir has taken a big hit with Haye’s injury and pullout from the fight so he’s going to need to get a really good opponent to keep boxing fans wanting to see him fight.
The good news is that Wladimir has a lot of boxers that want to fight him. The bad news is that there’s only three weeks before the fight leaving not much time for Wladimir to make a decision. And while Solis has great boxing skills that he’s picked up while learning his craft in Cuba, he probably isn’t the right choice for Wladimir if he wants to get a huge amount of fans interested in the fight.