Cuban Heavyweight Odlanier Solis Next Opponent For Vitali Klitschko
This Friday night at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida, Don King Productions presented "A Tribute To Freedom."
The main event of the card was a WBC Championship Final Elimination Bout between WBC No. 1 contender Ray "The Rainman" Austin (28-5-4, 18 KO's) of Cleveland, Ohio, against WBC No. 2 contender Odlanier "La Sombra" Solis (17-0, 12 KO's) of Miami, Florida.
Solis, a 2004 Heavyweight Olympic Gold medalist from Cuba, displayed quality protective skills and hand speed throughout the bout. After knocking Austin down in the fifth round with a strong left, Solis was on the verge of putting Austin away with a barrage of combination punches to Austin's head in the 10th round.
Austin held on to Solis and in a weird fashion ended up trying to flip himself and Solis over the ropes. Referee Tommy Kimmons ended up pulling the fighters into the ring by pulling Solis's trunks forward. Then afterwords when the round was about over, Austin sucker-punched Solis, causing Tommy Kimmons to stop the fight. Solis was declared the winner by disqualification at 2:59 in the 10th round. Scorecards at time of disqualification were 94-93, 95-93,and 98-90 all in favor of Solis.
Solis, who has been questioned about his weight affecting performance, was quoted as saying after the fight that "I don't think I'm fat. What I would like to do is slap around some of the newspaper writers that say I'm fat."
30 year old 6' 1" 260 LBS Solis, who defeated current WBA Heavyweight Champion David Haye in the amateur ranks now has a shot against WBC Heavyweight Champion 39 year old 6' '7" Ukrainian Vitali Klitschko, by spring 2011.
