By Alexey Sukachev
Niedersachsen, Germany - As was the case in all of his recent performances, former amateur star and now fringe heavyweight contender Odlanier Solis didn't impress anybody with his work ethics but got the job done with a knockout win over Germany-based Turk Yakup Saglam (29-3, 26 KOs) in the seventh round. 33-year old Solis retained his IBF I/C title in process.
IBF #10 and WBC #13 rated Solis fought just twice after his bizarre loss to Vitali Klitschko. Against Saglam he wasn't rusty but simply letargic for the first six rounds. Surely, Solis (20-1, 13 KOs) was better of the two in terms of his skills and speed but there was no dedication, no will and no desire to do something special. Solis was overly methodical and too tactical, while Saglam just didn't have anything to threaten his famed foe with. Solis was piling up points, Saglam was using numerous tiny fouls to annoy the referee. Then in the midst of the seventh, Solis finally started to work seriously, immediately hurt the German with several punches and then landed a massive right swing that sent Saglam down. Yakup beat the count but was in no position to continue, and the fight was stopped at that point.
---------------------
Former welterweight world title challenger Selcuk Aydin (25-2, 18 KOs), who fought at 140 lbs the last time, made a comeback to his previous weight class and grinded down Mexican Aaron Herrera (25-3, 18 KOs) with his trademark pressure in the eighth. Time was 1:11.
---------------------
In his first career twelve-rounder and also his first bout outside of native Argentina, Ramo De La Cruz Sena (13-8-2, 7 KOs) came short of scoring a sound upset over much more experienced Spain-based Columbian Ignacio Mendoza. The latter was down twice but cruised to a controverisally wide unanimous decision (117-111, 117-111 and 115-111) to acquire a vacant IBF Latino light welterweight title.
Mendoza, 29, was facing the first capable opponent on another comeback road. After a boring first round, Mendoza crushed De La Cruz with a big right hand in the second. He followed it up with a nice third round but then was suddenly floored badly late in the fourth with a huge straight right hand by the Argentinean. De La Cruz repeated the trick at the end of the sixth stanza with the same type of punch. He followed it up with several big rounds in the midst of the distance. However, Mendoza regroupped and used his experience to make a solid comeback in the championship rounds.
BoxingScene had it a draw 113-113 on a strength of two knockdown for De La Cruz. Mednoza is now 38-7-2, 23 KOs.
---------------------
