By Jim Dower: Former 2004 Olympic heavyweight gold medalist Odlanier Solis (20-1, 13 KO’s) picked up his 20th win of his 6 year pro career on Saturday night with a 7th round TKO win over Yakup Saglam (29-3, 26 KO’s) at the Kugelbake-Halle, Cuxhaven, Niedersachsen, Germany. Solis knocked Saglam down with a huge right hand in the 7th round. Referee Jean-Pierre Van Imschoot then stepped in and halted the fight at 2:30 of the round.

Solis showed excellent hand speed in the fight despite coming the bout weighing 255 lbs and looking at 25 pounds overweight. Being this heavy is normal for Solis, and he had no problems carrying around the fat on his frame as he punished Saglam with fast combinations in every round. Saglam showed good power too, but he wasn’t able to hurt Solis even when he landed cleanly. When Saglam would land anything, Solis would immediately blast him with hard combinations to the head and body.

Solis took his time and frequently took breaks in between combinations. Saglam had the opportunity to take over stretches of the fight, but he didn’t have the skills to take command of the fight the way he should have been able to whenever Solis would go into his lulls where he wasn’t throwing punches.

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In other action, former WBC Silver welterweight champion Selcuk Aydin (25-2, 18 KO’s) stopped Aaron Herrera (25-3, 17 KO’s) in the 8th round. Aydin didn’t show much improvement over his performance in getting beaten by Jesus Soto Karass last January. Aydin is still throwing mainly one punch at a time and loading up with everything instead of looking to throw more combinations.