By Scott Gilfoid: After 1 year of waiting, WBA World bantamweight champion Jaime McDonnell (29-2-1, 13 KOs) fought to a 3 round no decision against Liborio Solis (25-5-1, 11 KOs) in their rematch on Saturday night at the Casino de Monte Carlos Salle Medcin, in Monaco, Monte Carlo.
McDonnell, 31, suffered a bad cut over his left eye that caused the ringside doctor to stop the contest in round 3. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:45 of round 3. The cut was caused by a clash of heads.
Boxing News 24 had Solis winning all 3 rounds of the fight. McDonnell wasn’t skilled enough on the inside to compete with the hard-hitting Solis.
Like in the first fight, Solis got the better of McDonnell in every round, and he clearly deserved the win. McDonnell was taking a pounding on the inside in the 3rd round. It wasn’t just because the blood that was leaking into his left eye that was the cause of him getting worked over by Solis. McDonnell, 5’10”, was too slow, and ineffective on the inside for him to compete with the 35-year-old Solis.
McDonnell needed to use his height and reach to fight at range, but he stubbornly tried to mix it up with Solis at close quarters, and he paid for is.
You’ve got to feel sorry for Solis. He waited an entire year to get a rematch with McDonnell after losing a controversial 12 round decision to him last November in Monaco. Solis had been waiting all this time for McDonnell to give him his rematch, which had been ordered by the World Boxing Association.
McDonnell took his time in giving Solis the WBA ordered rematch. It’s unclear where Solis stands now. Unless the WBA orders a third fight between them, presumably McDonnell could just move on without fighting Solis again. Solis is ranked #3 by the WBA, so it’s not as if he’s in the position to get a third fight with McDonnell. The way that Solis worked McDonnell over tonight, I think it’s a good idea that McDonnell move on and avoid this guy at all costs, because he’s not good enough to beat him.
You can argue that McDonnell should be stripped of his WBA title due to the long period of time he took before defending the title. The WBA needs to consider their options. If McDonnell can’t defend the WBA belt in a timely fashion, then the WBA needs to think about stripping him. Having a champion that only defends once year isn’t a good thing for boxing fans.
McDonnell looked like he was near tears at the end of the fight. The way the fight was being played out, McDonnell should be thankful the ringside doctor halted it, as he was getting beaten to the punch by Solis in close. Had the fight continued the way it was, Solis was going to win going away.
It’s going to be interesting to see if McDonnell shows some class by giving Solis a third fight or not. It would be disappointing to see McDonnell move on from this fight by treating it as a win rather than another bad performance from him against a fighter that has his number.