By Jim Dower: The fight between WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (41-2, 38 KO’s) and unbeaten challenger Odlanier Solis (17-0, 12 KO’s) is now a done deal, as the contracts have reportedly been “signed, sealed and delivered,” according to news from Dan Rafael of ESPN. The fight, which will be the 39-year-old Vitali’s sixth title defense of his World Boxing Council belt, will be taking place at the Lanxess-Arena, in Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Vitali recently gave a horrible beating to 38-year-old Shannon Briggs in a 12 round decision win in October 2010.
Vitali was hoping to get a bigger name than just the unbeaten Solis, but Solis wasn’t interested in stepping aside while Vitali looked for greener pastures. Solis recently defeated Ray Austin by a 10th round disqualification bout on December 17th in the WBC heavyweight eliminator fight to get to the mandatory position to face Vitali. At 6’1 1/2″ 260 pounds, Solis is going to have major problems landing his shots against the towering 6’7″ Vitali.
Although Solis was able to land effectively against the 6’6″ Austin in his last fight, Austin fought in an upright manner and was throwing the weakest of jabs and right hands. Solis had nothing to fear from Austin and was able to plod forward and throw combinations whenever he pleased without having to worry about getting hit with anything significant. Against Vitali, Solis will have an extremely difficult time landing to the head because of Vitali’s style of leaning backwards when incoming shots are fired his way.
Solis can always work Vitali’s body, but to get close enough to land with any consistency, Solis is going to have to eat a lot of left hooks and right hands to the head. A fighter can only take so many of those shots without swelling up and cutting. Solis is going to have some problems unless he decides to play it safe and hang around on the outside to keep from getting hit so much. Either way, he’s going to have problems with Vitali’s size, strength and defense.
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