Odlanier Solis: the good and the bad

The good:
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-Handspeed: The man has very fast hands. A lot of his opponents were stunned mostly because they didn't see the punches coming. This is pure talent.

-Technique & defence: He is very consistent in keeping a high guard throughout the entire fight. Solis is very skilled at slipping the jab and countering with a right hand, an essential technique that he needs to compensate for his lacks of height and big punching power. The man also has great countering ability, particularly with the left hook. The fact that he throws every punch in the book makes him hard to predict.

-Combinations: His combinations are very fluid and he uses a nice variation of straight rights, left hooks and uppercuts, varying his distance while doing so.

The bad:
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-Conditioning: He won the olympic gold medal at 201lbs, yet fought at 259lbs yesterday! And it's not like he was a teenager in the olympics either; he was already pretty mature at 24 years old. If i was his trainer, i'd get him down to at least 235lbs, preferably around 225lbs. This is a common problem for Cubans because they have a very sudden transformation from a strict communist country to freedom, a lot of money, and a big fridge.

Incidentally, Solis beat Haye in the amateurs during a very exciting fight which you can watch here:
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-Lack of power: I've seen nearly all of his pro fights, and almost every stoppage came because he outclassed his opponent rather than landing a really big shot. If he had good power then he would've finished Burnett in the 3rd with that hailstorm of punches.

This need not be a very big negative; after all, Ali and Holmes weren't that big punchers either. But when you're 6'1 and fat, you kind of need that equalizer. Ali would've never had trouble with Norton if he had a big punch.


-Feet stuck in the mud: A consequence of the lack of conditioning on his part: his footwork, while excellent from a technical point of view, is slow. Very slow. Carrying those excess 40lbs takes its toll which gives a large contrast between his hand- and footspeed. Burnett was able to peck him with a lot of jabs because of it, although most of them were blocked. Still, a good jabber with fast feet would give him a lot of trouble. Especially given that he's 6'1, he needs to cross a large gap with most of todays heavyweights. He lacks power and footspeed to do that. Now, power is God-given, but he can increase his footspeed by simply doing what a professional boxer is supposed to do: getting in good shape.

-Workrate: A minor negative perhaps because he does throw about 40 punches a round, but again, if you lack power and size, you gotta work hard to compensate.

The ugly:

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