By Jason Kim: Pedro Luis Diaz, the trainer for unbeaten heavyweight contender Odlanier Solis (17-0, 12 KO’s), believes his fighter is at his best weight imaginable for Solis to beat WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (41-2, 38 KO’s) on Saturday night. Solis scaled in at 246 pounds compared to the 249 lbs for Vitali. Thus far, Solis’ best weight of his career was 246 1/2 lbs for his fight against 6’5″ Cisse Salif in March 2008.

Solis had a lot of problems with Salif’s size in that fight and looked very uncomfortable despite winning the bout by 8 round unanimous decision. Solis is in similar shape for Saturday fight. His trainer Diaz says “My boxer is at the ideal weight to beat Vitali Klitschko. No more, no less. Just enough. Solis’ preparation has been designed and prepared down to the smallest detail. Vitali does not know what kind of trouble he is in for. Odlanier is in the prime of his career.”

I wouldn’t exactly say Solis is in the very prime of his career. I think he was a better fighter at the very start of his career in 2007 than he is now at 30. And to be honest, Solis may have left his best years behind while fighting as an amateur in cuba, where he won the 2004 Olympic Gold medal and three world championships. If you look at old video of how Solis looked and fought back then and compare it to the fat, out of shape Solis that has been fighting as a pro, there is no comparison. Solis was a much better fighter physically as an amateur than he is now. He’s slower now in terms of hand speed, gasses out quickly after fighting hard for one round and needs a lot of rest breaks. As an amateur, Solis was blazing fast and could fight hard for four straight rounds. His amateur record was an incredible 347-12. I think he left his best years behind him back then.

Solis will have to be able to fight hard for three minutes of every round to beat Vitali and put him in the kind of trouble that Solis’ trainer is talking about. Whether Solis can do that is the major question. He wasn’t capable of fighting hard for more than a couple of rounds at a time in his last fight against Ray Austin last year in December. I don’t know whether much will change from that fight in the Vitali bout other than he’ll be forced to run a lot more.