By Cliff Rold (photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank)

The amateur credentials speak for themselves.  World championships at Heavyweight in 2001 and 2003 were topped off with an Olympic Gold Medal in 2004.  One year later, a Super Heavyweight World Amateur title, with wins against legendary fellow Cuban Felix Savon and future professional champions Sultan Ibragimov (WBO Heavyweight) and David Haye (World Cruiserweight) through the years. 

It’s the sort of resume which would make any scout foam at the mouth, wondering what a fighter with such bona fides could do in the pro ranks.

So far, wonder has become a reality with two distinct answers. 

Through 14 professional bouts since a successful defection to the free world in late 2006, 29-year old Cuban Odlanier Solis has won.  Ten times, he has sent his opponent home early.

That’s the first answer.

Answer number two? 

Looking at the scale, he evidently eats.

He evidently eats way too much.

Before all is said and done, answer number two could leave handlers and viewers foaming at the mouth as another talent squanders the best of what they could be to unnecessary excess.  This Saturday night, fans can get a good drinking game going just wondering how heavy Solis will be.  On the pay-per-view undercard of Juan Manuel Lopez-Rogers Mtagwa, Solis will be facing Kevin John…err, Fres Oquend…oh, make that veteran Monte Barrett (34-7, 20 KO).

Barrett has lost four of his last seven, three of them by stoppage.  It’s the sort of fight which is both winnable and a good sign for a developing professional.  Solis’s competition so far has been strong.  He has yet to face anyone with a losing record and, including Barrett, has seen men whose combined record is 266-80-14.   While Barrett, 38, is on the downside, all but a loss to Cliff Couser have come to champions or serious contenders at Heavyweight.  He’s a respectable stepping stone.

But even with a likely win, Solis is almost certain to leave more to the imagination than he did in training.  Since turning pro, Solis has never weighed less than 246 lbs. with a peak weight of 262 ½ in his last bout. 

For those who have not yet seen Solis live, he is not a 6’6 monster like one of the Klitschko’s.   He isn’t even loose at 6’4 like recently pummeled title challenger Chris Arreola.  Solis stands just a hair over 6’1.  This isn’t a case where anyone can say ‘he’s just big boned.’

Look again at his headgear era trophy case.  Until 2004, when he was already in his mid-20s, he was regularly making the Heavyweight limit of 201 lbs.  Sometime in the last five years, he’s stretched to as much as 262. 

Seriously? 

It’s enough to make one wonder when his fights will cut away to Wil Wheaton cracking up the other kids at the camp fire.

It would be less disappointing were Solis part of a different crew.  Along with Solis, former Cuban amateur stars and fellow defectors like Featherweight Yuriorkis Gamboa, Jr. Featherweight Guillermo Rigondeaux, and Middleweight Erislandy Lara have emerged as major blue chip stocks in the pro market.  They are fighters anyone who loves boxing can get excited about seeing develop. 

There have been some comparisons to the last Cuban wave which brought the sport men like Jorge Luis Gonzalez, Ramon Garbey, and two-division champion Joel Casamayor.  Top to bottom, this class is even more promising.

Only Casamayor emerged to be a truly outstanding professional then.  Speculation existed about how much being out from under the weight of communism affected the rest, about whether the fun of life got in the way of gym work.  Casamayor found a balance.  So far, all but Solis have appeared to do so this time around. 

Going further, it would be shocking if only one of this Cuban wave followed in “El Cepillo’s” footsteps.  This may be the most impressive amateur-to-professional grouping to enter the professionals, from a single nation, since the 1984 U.S. Olympians went pro.

Ironically, from the American team which produced Pernell Whitaker, Evander Holyfield, and Virgil Hill, it was the Heavyweight amateurs of 1984 who ultimately disappointed.  Could history repeat itself?

It’s probably not even a good comparison.  American Heavyweight Gold Medalist Henry Tillman and Super Heavyweight Gold Medalist Tyrell Biggs were undone less by work ethic and more by the greatness of others.  Early in his career, Tillman was felled by Holyfield; the same was true for Biggs against Mike Tyson. 

Solis doesn’t have similar obstacles.  Sure, there are the Klitschko’s, but Vitali is aging quickly and Wladimir is heading towards his mid-30s sooner than later.  And Solis, beneath the extra pounds, exhibits the sort of talent fans could get excited about as a challenge to the dominance of the brothers Ukraine.

His balance and footwork are fundamentally solid, his jab educated, and he’s got pop behind his shots.  Take twenty or thirty pounds off him, and the increase flexibility, nimbleness, and hand speed could make him lethal. 

And yet here it goes again as questions about commitment and desire at Heavyweight demand to be asked instead of ‘how soon can we find out if he can do it?’

Countless are the numbers who have declared this the worst era in the history of the Heavyweight division.  It may or may not be the case.  There has been more dreck over the years at Heavy than most care to recall.  However, what stands out is a general air of lethargy in too much of the division. 

Pick a contender…any contender.

Unless their last name starts with a K, or they used to be the Cruiserweight champ, there is a question of whether they are getting into the best shape possible.  Fans still watch anyways.  Vitali-Arreola delivered the biggest live boxing audience of the year in the U.S.; Wladimir-Ruslan Chagaev packed 60,000 into a German arena. 

Given his talent, Solis can make a pretty good living while doing all the living he wants outside the ring.  With the right breaks, he could win a belt on sheer ring knowledge alone.  It doesn’t mean it’s not okay to ask for more from the outside looking in.

And it is asked…Odlanier Solis, can you become the most you can be? 

It’s still early enough to be worth watching for a better response.

The Weekly Ledger

But wait, there’s more…

Cliff’s Notes…
Speaking of Heavyweights who ate away some of their best chances, David Tua looked good last weekend.  It doesn’t matter who he did it against.  The hook is still there and so is decent quickness.  Fights with Sam Peter or Chris Arreola are winnable right this second and could make him a contender again.  It’s not too late for Tua but he should be a cautionary tale for Solis of a fighter toiling at 36 for what should have been already… One week to go until the Super Six begins... It was cool to hear there will a 24/7-ish show starting on Showtime this weekend for the tournament.  Its best feature?  No Mayweathers!

Cl iff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com