Solis Oliner pose
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Jerry Glick reporting: Ever since Castro took power in Cuba there have been waves of Cuban boxers looking for the freedom to fight for a professional title and professional money. Most look to make it big in the US. After the first group came and conquered in American rings in the 1950’s and 60’s, including great Cuban fighters such as Luis Rodriguez, Benny Paret, Florentino Fernandez, and others, there have been, in every decade, new waves of talented, experienced amateurs who have found glory in the United States. Now the latest Cuban heavyweight to make noise in the pro ranks is preparing to move ahead in the heavyweight division, undefeated WBC International Heavyweight Champion and former Cuban Olympic gold medalist, Odlanier Solis, 15-0 (11 KOs), talked to the media about his upcoming fight with former world title challenger, Carl Drummond, 26-2 (20 KOs), via a teleconference call on Wednesday.
They will meet in sunny Florida on Saturday, March 30th, at the Mallory Square Garden in Key West on Top Rank’s well stocked show. Solis will be defending his belt for the third time.
The “Top Rank Live” show will be broadcast on Fox En Español.
He said that he is ready, but his weight has been an issue in past fights. His team believes that he will be lighter than when he KO’d Monte Barrett last October when he came in at a hefty 271 pounds.
“I can definitely tell you that he has dropped weight since the last fight,” explained Tony Gonzalez, advisor to Solis. “I don’t know exactly what his weight is at this point, but he will come in lighter than in his fight against Monte Barrett.”
“I put in a lot of work for this fight,” said Solis. “I’m well aware that I’m fighting only 90 miles away from my home country, and I want to put on the best performance that I can possible, not only for my public that’s going to be present there in Key West, but also for my countrymen in Cuba.”
Arum, ever the dreamer, sees a day when he will be able to stage a heavyweight title fight on the Cuban island.
“The old guy (Castro) who is older than me even,” said Arum. “He isn’t going to last that much longer. When his brother goes also, my dream is to take Odlanier Solis as the heavyweight champion of the world and have him defend his title in Havana.”
He may have had only 15 pro fights but he, as are the other Cubans coming to the US, more experienced than it appears. Solis had 231 amateur fights. He’s 29 years old and is as ready as he will ever be for a title fight.
“We were contacted by the (WBC Champion) Vitali Klitschko people when their fight with Valuev fell out,” said Arum. “And they almost agreed to do the fight with Solis but they went in another direction. They’re fighting a Polish guy (Albert Sosnowski). I think that we may very well be up next and it really doesn’t matter. I think the Klitschkos are the real heavyweight champions.”
Arum added that a fight with WBA Champion David Haye, 23-1 (21 KOs) would be acceptable too.
Arum said that he is sure that if there was not a scheduling problem that developed as well that a deal would have been made with Klitschko.
Arum declined an offer to stage the fight on June 5th instead of May 29th because it would conflict with his Yankee Stadium show (Foreman vs Cotto scheduled for June 5th).
Top Rank believes that they have, with Solis and Gamboa, gleaned two of the more exciting fighters out of the crop of Cubans that are available here in the US today. Solis hopes that other Cuban amateurs will see what he accomplished and be inspired by that.
“I definitely do know that we opened up the trail way to show them that there is life after amateur boxing and can very well take up professional boxing, but there is a lot of sacrifice in it. They can use us as an example of going into the professional ranks.”
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