Arena fight card,march the 14th,Solis,Sam

[Odo]

Very good fight card IMO:


Turkish heavy weight hero Sinan Samil Sam(29-4) will square off against Serbian journeyman Ratko Draskovic(27-6) in his last fight before he fights for the european belt against Skelton.

Former German supermiddle champ Markus Beyer(34-3) will face Murat Mahmudov(16-3) in his comeback fight.The Dagestani from Russia's southern part has lost against well known Czech Lukas Konecny,German based Turk Mahir Oral,and German based Armenian warrior Khoren Gevor.
Mahmudov is a very good test for Beyer.My gut feeling keeps telling me that Beyer will be in for a surprise against Mahmudov.

German-Russian heavy weight Konstantin Airich(8-0) will face the toughest opponent in his career,the American vet Sherman Williams(33-10).This upcomming fight will tell us a lot of Airich's skills and talent.

Rising shooting star Selcuk Aydin(13-0) will square off against decent Farkhad Bakirov(24-2).

Former Cuban amateur star Odlanier Solis' next opponent isnt known yet.Names like Perkovic or Petranyi have been mentioned.
I for my part hope that a fight between Solis and Bakhtov can be made.

Mustafa Karakol(11-1) will fight tough German Alexander Sipos(19-3) on the undercard.Could go either way.

Local hero Amina Dollinger(18-0) will face Kai Kurzawa(22-3).
Kurzawa has totally disappointed over the last 2 years.He has talent and punch,but he seems to have a kind of mental problem when he is forced to go for the victory.
I very much hope that he has overcome his problems as he could make some noise in his weight division if he is focused and fully concentrated throughout a fight and has recorrected his attitude towards his choosen profesion.

[Odo]

good fight card. is it on eurosport???

aydin vs bakhirov will be a real test.

moritz mahmudov lost to gevor only by MD and in his last fight dropped world ranked mahir oral en route to losing on points. this could indeed be an upset!!!!

airich will be in for a real test. should win on points, but he better tighten his defense.

armin dollinger vs kurzawa ehy??? hehehehehehe.

dollinger is called "the boxing bartender".........cause that is his regular job. his record is totally fake and he cant fight.

kurzawa aint special, but quite a few levels above dollinger. kurzawa will ko his ass.

You are right.Dollinger vs Kurzawa is a mismatch.

Airich will be in for a real test indeed.Sherman Williams is still good enough to expose a pretender.

I very much hope that Solis will be fighting someone like Bakhtov or Hersisia instead of someone like Petranyi.

[Odo]

Just a few days earlier,on march the 11th,Oener stages another fight card in Germany.

Rising German heavy weight talent Steffen Kretschman(10-0) is the headliner.His opponent isnt known yet.

Herbi Hide(41-4) vs Rudier May(43-5) will take place on the undercard.

Former German amateur star Tino Gross(3-0) will also appear on the undercard.

Russian welter weight Sergej Sorokin(26-1) ,who beat American toughman Emanuel Augustus in his last fight ,will square off against Kanat Kartenbaev(6-1).
Among Sorokin's scalps is Ante Bilic who had given hell to Lukas Konecny in his backyard in Prague in front of 15,000 spectators a few years ago.
Though Bilic lost that fight,he for sure showed a very courageous and decent performance against the well known Czech .

[NBT]

Hide fights May? I wondered why Öner would bother with May who is much less talented than his brother and even his brother wasn't anything special. Now we know, he just signed him to feed a decent looking record to Hide.

[Karlo]

Why not put Solis against Sherman Williams. Williams would have been a tougher opponent than Seldon in the first place IMO.

[Karlo]

Just saw that Solis is going to fight Cisse Salif. It could have been better, but it could also be much worse. Salif is a very limited boxer but he's big and he got a good chin, so let's hope that Solis uses his boxingskills more this time, than he did against Julius Long (where he only tried to KO Long).

[Odo]

Why not put Solis against Sherman Williams. Williams would have been a tougher opponent than Seldon in the first place IMO.

Good point,Karlo!

Willliams would have been a much better opponent than Seldon.
Weir matchmaking,isnt it? Solis fights Cisse Salif,a huge,inmobile,and totally predictable African whereas Solis' stablemate Aurich,an inexperienced heavy weight rookie will square off against Sherman Williams.
Very risky fight for Aurich wheras Salif wont pose a serious threat to Solis.
At least Solis will be forced to go some rounds with the behemoth from Africa.Salif can take a good punch.

[Odo]

I dont get it! Have just learnt that Arena's rising German heavy weight hope Kretscham will face Russian journeyman Alexej Kosobokovs in the main event of Arena's fight card on march the 11th.

Doesnt make much sense IMO. Kretscham headlining a fight squaring off against a no-hoper whereas totally inexperienced Konstantin Aurich(8-0) will fight a teak tough cookie from the USA(Sherman Willaims).
Kretscham has already proved that he can beat decent opposition(Corey Sanders,Perkovic).Sherman would have been a good test for him at this stage of his career.Solis' and Kretschmam's stable mate Aurich may be overmatched with Sherman.

[Odo]

All in all German heavy weight talent Steffen Kretschman showed a decent performance against durable Russian-Latvian journeyman Kosobokovs winning by tko in round 7.
Kosobokovs would probably have made it to the final bell.Premature stoppage by the ref.Anyway! The game Latvian had been punished by Kretschan who systematically dismantled his foe.

Sorokin didnt put up a very convincing show against a courageous but totally unknown journeyman.


German cruiser weight talent Tino Gross took his overmatched Polish opponent out in the very first round of their encounter.At this point of time I am not really sure how far he can go but I liked what I saw against the Pole in yesterday's fight.

Turkish silver medal olympist Yalcinkaya stopped his opponent-the experienced journeyman Tasimov-in round 3 in his pro debut.

[Odo]

Instead of fighting Sherman Williams Arena's heavy weight Konstantin Airich will square off against tough Ukranian olympian Mazikin.

Good test for Airich!
My guess is that Airich will struggle against Mazikin who was no match for Solis but who is still good enough to give hell to untested fighters like Airich.
In one of his last fights Mazikin won a shutout point decision against Sedrick Fields(yep! the guy who beat Shannon Briggs)

[Odo]

And by the way Solis will face huge African journeyman Cisse Salif on the undercard of Sam vs Ratkovic.

[Odo]

Mazikin scored a draw against Aurich.Arena's heavy weight talent seemed to have too much on his plate with the decent Ukranian olympian.

Selcuk Aydin,too,seemed to have a tough time against his unknown opponent from Uzbekistan.

Solis was forced to go the full route with his huge African foe.Good matchmaking!

Sinan Sam suprisingly stopped his opponent quite early-in the second round.
Nevertheless his weight makes me worry.His next opponent Skelton may harpoon the whale.

[11player]

Nice to hear from Solis, I hope he continues to step up his competition and improve his body condition.

If he works hard in 2008 we may be hearing from him as a contender in 2009.