(Photo: S. Yamada / ARENA) By Jim Dower: A flabby 267 pound former heavyweight contender Odlanier Solis (18-1, 12 KO’s) returned to the ring tonight after 14 months out of the ring to defeat Russian Konstantin Airich (23-6-2, 17 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Convention Center in Pharr, Texas. The final judges’ scores were 118-110, 119-109, 119-109.

Reminding one a lot of heavy James Toney during his Samuel Peter era at heavyweight, Solis looked decent in unloading with fast combinations on Airich in the first three rounds. But like in his fight against Ray Austin in December 2010, Solis gassed out after the 3rd round and needed to rest for two rounds before he was able to recharge his batteries and resume dominating from the 6th round. Airich failed to push Solis in any real way, and this allowed the very heavy looking Solis to fight at a slow enough pace to where he was able to dominate the rest of the fight.

Solis showed some really good skills at time, especially on defense where he looked almost like Floyd Mayweather Jr. with his shoulder roll. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to move his feet very much because of the combinations of a lot of excess fat and his surgically repaired right knee. However, Solis did a good job of picking off and dodging Airich’s best shots.

In the last four rounds, Solis came on landing combinations and hard jabs. Airich was still able to get some of his shots through the guard, but mostly he just looked like he was in a sparring session and there to survive.

After the fight both fighters were booed by the crowd.