This coming Saturday, Odlanier ?La Sombra? Solis will challenge Vitali Klitschko for the WBC?s version of the world heavyweight boxing championship. Solis won a gold medal for Cuba in the heavyweight (201 lb) division at the 2004 Olympics. Like many other amateurs from boxing-rich Cuba, he left his country so that he could embark on a professional career that remains forbidden at home under the Castro regime.
For his professional debut in Germany in 2007, Solis weighed 258 lb ? nearly 60 more than he sported during his amateur days. On a man who stands half-an-inch over 6-foot-1, that?s an awful lot of extra weight to carry around the ring. And it isn?t all muscle.
Rather than reduce his avoirdupois, Solis has actually increased his poundage since his debut. He has gone into the ring as high as 271 lb. In his last bout, a disqualification victory over Ray Austin, ?La Sombra? cast a wide shadow at 260.
With his sterling amateur background, Solis has plenty of skills. His record stands at 17-0, with 12 KOs. By comparison, Muhammad Ali carried a 19-0 log into the ring when he challenged Sonny Liston. And that?s about as far as that comparison can go.
We don?t yet know how much Solis will weigh for the Klitschko bout. But if he hasn?t pared a lot of unnecessary pounds from his frame, he will go into the bout at a disadvantage. If Solis wins, it will be a huge upset. If he loses, he will be the latest in the long line of ?Fat Boyz? that keep popping up like Pillsbury Doughboys in the heavyweight ranks over the years. Here are some of the more memorable of those plus-size pugilists.
James Toney is a charter member of the club. A few weeks ago, Toney scored a lackluster decision over a journeyman named Damon Reed. Toney weighed in at 257 lb., loaded on to a 5-foot-10 frame. Although he briefly held the WBA heavyweight title, Toney is now an aging fighter who still knows a lot, but weighs far too much to take full advantage of his remaining skills. Toney was once an excellent middleweight, like Bernard Hopkins. Imagine what Hopkins would be like today with almost 100 more pounds to drag around. That?s Toney.
At 6-foot-4, Chris Arreola is tall enough to carry a fair amount of weight. But he keeps coming into his bouts at 20 or 30 pounds more than he should. Were he in better shape, he might not have lost to Vitali Klitschko and Tomasz Adamek. As it is, he?s treading water when he ought to be on a treadmill.
Eric ?Butterbean? Esch was a whale of a fighter size-wise, ballooning over the years from 300 lb. to more than 400. His height was slightly under six feet. Butterbean, however, was little more than a sideshow attraction during his heyday in the 1990s as ?King of the Four-Rounders.? Despite his popularity, he was never considered a serious contender.
During the 1980s, the talent-wasting trio of Greg Page, Tim Witherspoon, and Tony Tubbs traded alphabet titles like coupons at an ?all-you-can-eat? buffet. None of them paid much attention to their weight, not to mention training and discipline. Is it any wonder that the young Mike Tyson, with his ripped physique and ferocious punching power, was considered such a breath of fresh air in a division replete with Fat Boyz?
Going further back in history, Buster Mathis was something of a physiological anomaly. At 6-foot-3 and 300 lb. in his amateur days, he was actually quicker on his feet than many much-smaller heavyweights. At the trials for the U.S. 1964 Olympics boxing squad, Mathis beat Joe Frazier twice on points. But a hand injury forced Mathis out of the Games, and Frazier took his place to win a gold medal. When Mathis turned pro, he managed to melt about 50 pounds from his frame. His amateur wins over Frazier more-or-less guaranteed that the two would eventually meet as pros. When they fought for a version of the world heavyweight title in 1968, Mathis had slimmed down to 243 lb., still nearly 40 pounds more than Frazier. Nonetheless, ?Smokin? Joe? brutalized his former nemesis, stopping him in the eleventh round. ?Big Bus? was never the same after that big beatdown.
And then there?s Tony ?Two Ton? Galento, the Fat Boy who almost knocked out the great Joe Louis back in 1939. At 5-foot-9 and 230 lb., Galento was sometimes called a ?walking beer barrel.? Not a bad description, considering his conspicuous consumption of that beverage. His boxing skills were at best rudimentary, but he had a lethal left hook. He also had a mouth similar to Ricardo Mayorga?s. Of Louis, Galento boasted ?I?ll moider da bum!? And that?s just what was printable. When they met in the ring for Louis?s title, Joe was perturbed enough to deck Galento in the second round. Then, in the third, Galento landed a hook that sent Louis crashing to the canvas. Joe was hurt ? and so incensed and embarrassed that he subsequently carved Galento into bloody chunks, forcing the referee to stop the slaughter in the next round. But that knockdown of the Brown Bomber made Galento famous for the rest of his life.
If Solis stays in the Fat Boyz club, he will have a lot to live up ? or down ? to. We?ll see how he does against a dominant champion who is big, but far from fat.
Charles R. Saunders is the author of several books including Sweat and Soul: The Saga of Black Boxers in the Maritimes from the Halifax Forum to Caesars Palace, as well as the Imaro series of fantasy/adventure novels. Considered by many to be one of the leading authorities on boxing in Canada, he is the current Vice-President of Boxing for the Society of North American Sports Historians and Researchers.
