Vitali’s win over Solis is bitter sweet

By Boxing News - 03/19/2011 - Comments

Image: Vitali's win over Solis is bitter sweetBy Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (42-2, 39 KO’s) may have recorded a 1st round stoppage win over challenger Odlanier Solis (17-1, 12 KO’s) on Saturday night in Germany, but the win failed to really establish that Vitali was the better fighter or who would have won if not for the injury. Solis was winning the fight until the last seconds of the 1st when Solis got hit on the top of his head, lost his balance, and then hurt his right knee in the process. Solis went down from his knee collapsing out from under him, not because he was hit by a hard shot from Vitali. The fight needs to be changed to a no contest because the knockdown was a delayed one where Solis’ knee collapsed while he was backing away. He didn’t look at all hurt.

Solis was finished after the knockdown because his right knee wouldn’t support his 246 pound body. Before the knockdown, Vitali had landed next to nothing, just jabs, and many of them had missed their mark. Vitali didn’t even try to throw right hands and it’s a good thing he didn’t, because Solis was a lot faster and would have countered Vitali immediately. From my count, Solis landed six hard right hands in the round and connected with a couple nice left hooks as well. In terms of who landed the better shots in the round, it wasn’t even close. It was Solis by a landslide. He landed the only telling punches in the fight. All Vitali had to show for himself was his short right hand that caused Solis to lose his balance in the last seconds of the round.

Solis may have to go under the knife to get his injured right knee repaired. Depending on how bad the injury is, Solis could be out of action for an extended period of time healing up. Solis isn’t a huge heavyweight like Vitali, and you got to figure he’ll be less effective after the surgery. Solis knees two strong legs to find success because he can’t just overpower his opponents on size along like Vitali.

Solis was clearly the better fighter tonight, but Vitali will probably duck a rematch and move on with his career to his September bout against Tomasz Adamek or possibly a June or July fight against WBA heavyweight champion David Haye if Wladimir Klitschko’s abdominal injury fails to heal properly by then. Vitali would then be the substitute for Wladimir. I can’t see Haye having any luck at all against Vitali, because he’s not in his class. I think Solis would have knocked out Haye tonight.



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