There will be a lot on the line for Jorge Solis when the Mexican 126-pound champ challenges Manny Pacquiao in San Antonio, Texas this Saturday, the least of which will be unheralded featherweight’s unbeaten record.
When the 27-year-old Guadalajara native steps in the ring to face Pacquiao, the prospect of winning the WBC’s international 130-pound title and cashing in on upsetting one of the best fighters in the world, pound for pound, won’t be his prime motivation – national pride will be.
Solis, who will likely fight in front of 20,000 fans inside the Alamodome (the majority of whom will be his countrymen), wants to beat Pacquiao for the honor of his boxing-proud country.
Not since the 140-pound version of Roger Mayweather earned the “the Mexican Assassin” moniker by knocking out the likes of Oscar Bejines, Rene Arredondo (for the WBC’s super lightweight title), Mauricio Aceves and Rodolfo “Gato” Gonzalez at the Olympic and the Sports Arena (the L.A. venues where those south-of-the-border warriors earned their reps) during the mid-to-late 1980s has a top fighter taken on (and taken out) so many well-regarded Mexican fighters as Pacquiao has in the last four years.
Citing the 10 knockdowns Pacquiao has scored in his fights with Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez and Erik Morales, some of the Filipino hero’s faithful (and fanatical) followers have recently lobbied to change his nickname from “PacMan” to “the Mexicutioner” on various message boards and forums on the internet.
“The Black Mamba” eventually ran into old foe Julio Cesar Chavez at the Forum in 1989 and was stopped after 10 rounds, putting an end to his reign of terror in Southern California.
Can Solis be the Mexican to end Pacquiao’s streak?
Despite the former three-division champ’s recent distractions – from political aspirations to a promotional tug of war to an abbreviated training camp without the services of his head trainer, Freddie Roach – few fans, even the most diehard Mexican fight aficionados, give the unknown boxer a chance to pull off the upset.
Solis, 32-0-2 (23), is unbeaten as Chavez (63-0) was when he stopped Mayweather, but he’s obviously no “JC Superstar”.
He’s no Barrera, Morales or Marquez, either.
Heck, he isn’t even Oscar Larios.
Solis knows this, but he still believes he has a fighting chance – or perhaps “boxing chance” would be the more appropriate saying for the stick-and-move specialist.
“My technique is very different from the Mexican fighters that Pacquiao has defeated,” Solis told MaxBoxing at a media workout held at the Pound-for-Pound Gym in L.A. last Thursday. “I don’t think those guys have the same skills that I do. I’m able to do more in the ring and do things that they couldn’t do.”
For instance?
“My skills as a boxer are well defined,” explained Solis, when asked to describe his style. “I’m a good technician in the ring.
“But as my record shows, I have a few knockouts and I think I can hit with the best of them.”
He can’t hit with Pacquiao, who may not bring his ‘A-game’ to the ring Saturday but still possesses an extraordinary blend of speed and power.
Solis is unfazed by Pacquiao’s natural athletic ability. He respects it, but he knows that there is more to prize fighting than speed and power.
“Ever since I was small I was taught to box,” he said. “That’s how you take advantage [of your opponent]. I had a great teacher in Mr. Jesus Rivero for three years and he taught me a lot of boxing so that’s what [Pacquiao] is going to see from me.”
Rivero, one of the most respected Mexican trainers of the past 30 years, is best known to U.S. boxing fans as the old man who was brought in to fine-tune Oscar De La Hoya when the Golden Boy was a budding superstar in the mid-‘90s.
Many believe that Rivero, who only worked with De La Hoya for two years (mid-’95 to mid-’97), had the popular fighter boxing in his best form. The 5-foot-4 master trainer, known as “the Professor”, had been retired for almost 15 years (with the exception of a one-shot job guiding Humberto “Chiquita” Gonzalez to a rematch victory over Michael Carbajal) before he accepted the Golden Boy gig.
Rivero, who guided former flyweight champ Miguel Canto to the hall of fame, emphasized the Sweet Science rather than the savage side of the sport. Boxing, to the Professor, is a thing of beauty – it is art, it is poetry in motion. Defense and the ability to control the distance and tempo of a bout – to hit without being hit in return – are key objectives in every fight for Rivero-trained fighters.
Rivero had the 22-year-old De La Hoya study old films of Willie Pep, but he also exposed the Golden One to Plato, Beethoven and Shakespeare. Rivero, a student of Greek Philosophy, economics and history, wanted to open his fighters’ minds to more than just the craft of punching someone.
“Rivero is a genius but he is also totally out of his mind,” said Bob Arum, the promoter of Saturday’s card, which also features Jorge Arce and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and will be available on pay-per-view. “He would sit throughout all of Oscar’s workouts and thumb through books that he wanted the kid to read. He drove De La Hoya’s dad nuts because he kept trying to convert Oscar to Communism.”
The last champion that Rivero trained was Solis’ brother Ulises, an excellent junior flyweight who holds the IBF title. Rivero, who also trained former flyweight titlists Guty Espadas Sr. and Freddy Castillo (as well as numerous other standouts from the Yucatan in the ‘70s and ‘80s), has always had a love-hate relationship with boxing. After training Ulises Solis for five years, the eccentric teacher, now 77 years old, stepped away from the sport again two years ago, vowing never to return.
The Solis brothers thought about getting a new trainer but decided to instead coach each other using the knowledge they gleaned from the master.
“Why get another trainer when we’ve been taught by the best?” Solis asked rhetorically.
Ulises still calls the old man at least once a month. When his attempts at coaxing Rivero back into boxing are rebuffed, he humbly asks for notes and tips on technique, conditioning and nutrition.
Both Solis brothers knew that their time with Rivero was limited and both listened all of the old man’s lectures, whether the information had to do with the proper way to hook off the jab or the migrating patterns of a rare bird.
He was the professor, they were the grateful students.
They took meticulous notes, and by the looks of it, Jorge Solis is a typical Rivero-trained boxer.
All of Solis’ offense comes off the left jab and when his hands aren’t moving his feet are. There was constant lateral movement from Solis during his open workout last week.
This much was obvious: he’s a tall fighter who knows how to use his height and reach. He has good head and upper-body movement that he sneaks in-between his volleys of punches. He has above average hand speed and average power. His jab and uppercuts are very sharp. His left hook is decent. His right cross is OK, but nothing special.
Solis is what old timers would call a “cutie” in the ring. There’s nothing physically intimidating about him. He’s got narrow shoulders, boney arms and skinny legs, but he’s sneaky.
His mind is his most dangerous asset.
“When I look at a boxer that I’m about to fight I don’t look at their weaknesses,” he said. “I look at what they are good at, what their strengths are, and then I go about talking away those strengths.”
Pacquiao’s strengths are obvious.
“His speed is special,” Solis admitted. “He’s very fast. I have to nullify that. There has to be a way that I can stop [his speed] and then I can take advantage of him.”
There will be a lot of national pride on the line at the Alamodome Saturday night. Pacquiao is a true icon, absolutely beloved in the Philippines. He doesn’t want to let his people down. Solis doesn’t have the fan followings that Arce and Chavez Jr. bring with them, but he knows that when he walks into the ring with the Mexican flag, every Mexican national and Mexican-American fan in the arena will be behind him.
Solis won’t thrill them the way the blood-and-guts Arce will or the way Chavez’s father once did, but he will win their affection forever if he can take the “Mexicutioner” to school, Rivero style.
“As long as I give him movement, as long as I don’t give him a stationary target to get off with all those shots, as long as I move and get off with my shots at the same time,” Solis said, “I’ll be alright.”
