By Eric Thomas: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (41-2, 38 Ko’s) has a tough fight coming up next month against unbeaten Cuban Odlanier Solis (17-0, 12 KO’s) in Cologne, Germany. Solis has a lot of speed, excellent power and is better at throwing combinations than the aging Vitali. While Solis is short at 6’1″ and overweight at 260, his size and mobility are still better than Vitali. He’s also a lot better fighter than the kinds of guys that have been served up to Vitali in his 2nd career in boxing.

There’s no comparison between Solis and the fighters that Vitali has been feasting on. Solis is going to be making the 39-year-old Vitali work harder than he’s been accustomed, knowing that it will help if he can try and tire Vitali out and get him to expend enough energy to the point where he can be taken out or easily out-pointed. Vitali ahs got to be aware of that by standing back and avoiding letting Solis dictate the pace of the fight.

Vitali must fight at his own pace, because he can’t let Solis scare him into working too hard. Vitali is going to have to take some seriously hard shots in this fight. He’s going to have to take those shots and stay self contained and know that he can’t try and retaliate to pay Solis back for every shot that the Cuban lands, because he doesn’t have the same engine as the smaller fighter. As soon as Vitali is caught in the payback mode, he’s going to get outworked and beaten.