By Sean McDaniel: Photo credit Sumio Yamada – The extent of the injuries to Odlanier Solis’ right knee are finally known from his loss to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko from last weekend. Solis lost by a 1st round knockout when his right knee collapsed after he was hit by a light punch from Vitali. Solis was taken to a hospital with the following injuries being diagnosed:

Tears to his anterior cruciate ligament, external meniscus and cartilage damage. This is all pretty bad stuff and it’s going to take surgery and a lot of time off rehabilitating the injured knee before Solis will be ready to climb back in the ring and resume his promising career. Had the injury not occurred, Solis may have had a great chance to pull off an upset against Vitali, because he seemed to be handling the big 6’7″ Ukrainian well up until Solis hurt his leg. However, the chances of Vitali ever fighting Solis again are remote at best.

Vitali is going to take this victory and move on to a likely fight against Poland’s Tomasz Adamek in September or a title unification bout against WBA heavyweight champion David Haye in June or July. Vitali matches up well with either of those two fighters and would have a huge advantage in size in those fights. Haye and Adamek are smaller heavyweights who probably should be fighting still at cruiserweight. Haye has done well fighting older heavyweights nearing their 40s, but not of them have had any power to speak of or much left in the way of ability. Adamek has fought a lot of hand picked fighters like 38-year-old Michael Grant and Vinny Maddalone but has steered clear of younger guys that might put him in danger like Denis Boytov, Alexander Povetkin or Samuel Peter.