By Cliff Rold

There is, for some, optimism as boxing approaches the first major Heavyweight fight of the year this weekend.  It has not been unfair to argue the years since the retirement of Lennox Lewis as the least entertaining era in Heavyweight history.  Some might even say the worst, period, but the entertainment part is what is really being gotten at.

They are a testament to professionalism and focus.  Where other fighters of their size and skill might well have sloughed off and still assumed victory on most nights, where other contenders in their time have made a habit of showing up looking like they didn’t show up, the Klitschko’s always arrive ready.

This weekend’s optimism is about a challenger to the elder brother, 39-year old WBC titlist Vitali (41-2, 38 KO).  30-year old Cuban defector, and former Olympic Gold Medalist, Odlanier Solis (17-0, 12 KO) is almost a decade younger than Vitali and his pedigree amounts to enthusiasm for some.

Outside of ESPN’s Teddy Atlas, it’s hard to find many who think Solis will win this weekend.  The thirst for a quality challenger, for a real Heavyweight battle, allows Solis’s failings to date as a professional to be obscured by the hopeful.  The facts of the scale remain.  Solis, not quite 6’2, has rarely weighed less than 250 and been as high the 270s. 

He’s undoubtedly more skilled, and has a deeper background to call on, then previous Vitali challenger Chris Arreola.  His battle with the bulge might be worse considering he’s a couple inches shorter.  Maybe Solis has his detractors fooled, that he will live up to the promise the more svelte man in his amateur highlights alludes to. 

If not, no one will be surprised.

Even the most cynical, though likely to deny it, will feel the pang of disappointment right along with those approaching this Saturday positively. 

It’s no longer true to say that as goes Heavyweight, so goes boxing.  It never really was true in the first place.  Boxing has always found stars to keep it relevant when Heavyweight felt less than.  Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather are, at the box office, the real Heavyweight kings right now.  In the 1980s, despite the greatness of Larry Holmes, the real Heavyweight champ was Ray Leonard.  Ray Robinson trumped Floyd Patterson in the second half of the 1950s. 

None of that kills the yearning to see big men kick the hell out of each other in thrilling fashion.  That’s what is missing.  Good fighters are fine.

Good fights are better.

Heavyweight is overdue for a great fight.  It hasn’t had one since…

…nope, not Vitali versus Lennox Lewis, though that would be a fair guess.  No, the last great Heavyweight fight went down in April 2006 when Sergei Lyakhovich unseated Lamon Brewster for the WBO strap.  So, hey, at least it hasn’t been as long as Vitali-Lennox would make it.

Five years is still a long time for a division to go without a single fight that left the whole of the boxing world breathless.  Sure, there have been some decent scraps.  Wladimir versus Calvin Brock and Tony Thompson were both underrated.  Vitali made a drubbing of Arreola watchable.  None were particularly memorable in any lasting sense.   

Greatness is probably not going to happen this weekend.  It might before the year is out and goodness is at least assured.  In that sense, Klitschko-Solis this weekend should matter to cynic and optimist alike.  No matter who wins, the future will be exciting for them and the division.  

There is a very good chance that, when 2011 ends, the dismissals of the Heavyweight division, the ‘aw they suck’ impulse of recent years will have been warded off for a time.  That’s because, even if Klitschko-Solis fails to do so, there are bouts on the docket in front of us that can’t help but entertain. 

Most prominent among them, even if it still awaits official announcement, is the younger Klitschko defending the lineal World Heavyweight title against his chief rival, WBA beltholder David Haye.  No, really this time.

Honest.

Cross our hearts.

Wlad-Haye can’t help but entertain.  Even if some of the rounds are slow, someone is getting tagged and counted out.  Like Haye a former Cruiserweight champion, Tomasz Adamek is also likely to see a Klitschko this year too.  If Vitali wins this weekend, the tea leaves indicate Vitali, Adamek, and a giant soccer stadium looming in the fall.

Again, it’s hard to imagine that fight being boring. 

And then of course there is the possibility of a Solis win this weekend.  New blood always carries an air of excitement and Solis stuffing the critics of his conditioning would be a story in itself.  Suddenly, his amateur victories over Haye and the possibility of facing fellow Super Heavyweight Gold Medalists Wladimir and undefeated contender Alexander Povetkin would make real storylines out of what now is merely hypothesis.

The possibility of excitement, of entertainment, has been there in recent years.  It has failed to occur in the ring more often than not and fan frustration has boiled as the handful of fights that people wanted, rather than accepted, to see failed to take place.

This year feels like it could be different. 

It’s about time.

Weekly Ledger

But wait, there’s more…

Cliff’s Notes… Check out Klitschko-Solis online if the channel is unavailable.  A free trial at epixhd.com is available…If they are not already posted, the updated pound-for-pound ratings should be shortly…Nonito Donaire knows how to make the most out of a big win in the back rooms.  Let’s hope it doesn’t cost him another few years of quality matches this time…Sergio Martinez wanting Manny Pacquiao reminds of when Terry Norris wanted Pernell Whitaker and when HBO tried to talk up a catchweight fight between Pea and Roy Jones.  Pea, on the air, laughed off Jones and never went near Norris.  It’s wrong to say size alone wins fights.  However, when a man is bigger, has power, matches a smaller man’s speed, and has proven skill, even the greatest smaller men think twice.  Martinez ain’t getting Pacquiao anytime soon.  

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com