By Rick Reeno

Earlier tonight, Fox Sports Net hit the airwaves with a boxing event live from the Palace Indian Gaming Center in Lemoore, California. Vassily Jirov and Orlin Norris, two former cruiserweight champions battled it out in a do or die bout within the heavyweight division. Both men had hopes of picking up a big win in order to advance up the ranking ladder towards a potential title shot. The bout was far from a barnburner and ended with a majority draw decision.
 
Vassiliy Jirov (35-3-1, 30K) had one of the worst performances of his career and should really consider moving back down to the cruiserweight division. Jirov had every advantage over the near 40 year old Orlin Norris (57-9-1, 31K).
 
Jirov is two inches taller, 8 years younger, has 4 inches in reach and was still unable to look impressive with the smaller Norris. It was a tactical contest which saw Jirov having little success in finding his range to land power shots in the bout. Jirov went to the body of Norris, but not often enough to gain a significant advantage over the aging fighter.
 
The scores were 78-74 for Jirov and two duplicate cards of 76-76.
 
In other action,  Sam Soliman (31-7, 12K) kept his win streak going by picking up a very important unanimous ten round decision over Fernando Zuniga (23-8, 18K). Both men came ready to fight, but Soliman proved to be the busier fighter with the much harder punches. Soliman applied constant pressure throughout the ten round contest and his strategy proved to be the key towards the victory. The scores were 96-93, 99-91 and 99-91, all for Soliman.
 
The reason I say the victory was very important for Soliman is because he is the IBF's number one ranked middleweight contender. The win solidifies his spot in the rankings and will earn him a shot against the winner of the rematch between Bernard Hopkins and undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor.