13.10.06 – Aussie Middleweight “King” Sam Soliman is jumping out of his skin and probably in the best physical condition we have seen him in says trainer Dave Hedgcock. He was scheduled to face rugged Mexican Enrique Ornelus last month in America and for the first time in his 40 fight career had to pull out of a fight due to an injury sustained training. He has now been back in training and sparring and is ready to go. “He wants it to happen tomorrow laughed Hedgcock”. Speaking from his hometown in Melbourne Australia Soliman had this to say on Ornelus:
I am really just looking forward to getting back into the ring again. You only have to look at my career and you will see that I like to stay active. My preparation for this fight has been the best I have ever had. Firstly I had a month to research Ornelus before the original date and I’ve now had 3 months! Never before in 40 fights have I had this luxury. I’ve seen enough of his fights and know exactly how to counter his style. He’s never faced anyone remotely like me (laughed Soliman) and will think he’s facing 3 opponents by the end of the 3rd round. By the 6th round he’ll start making mistakes (if he’s not I’ll start creating them) and I’ll then take him apart.
There is still some doubters about my lack of punching power in particular after the Winky fight “I made a mistake with my diet before this fight that saw me enter the ring one pound lighter than I did at the 24 hour weigh in. While I felt physically ok – I know my landed punches weren’t impacting on the 11lb heavier Winky Wright”.
My mistake, and while I wasn’t performing at my usual best I gave Winky one of the hardest fights of his career and Emanuel Steward summed it up perfectly “I’ve never seen Winky hit as many times before”. Enrique’s problem is that I am now better than 100% and I wont be playing with diets on the 3rd week in November. Enrique is tall / rangy, tough, has a good kit of punches and is fit. He is a former WBC World Youth Champ who has some credible scalps though has one weakness that no trainer can fix and on November 17 I will be the 3rd person to have exposed it.
Manager Stuart Duncan said that he was confident Sam would apply the usual pressure that has seen him win 20 of his last 21 fights including stopping 7 of his last 10 opponents. He has just spent 3 weeks in Sydney sparring the bigger stronger Paul Briggs who in many ways fights a bit like Enrique. Paul is taller like Enrique & much bigger being a natural light heavyweight.
The last time we had Sam out pf the ring for 6 months, the break appeared to have done him good as he totally dominated Nader Hamden who was 32-0 & rated inside the top 10 with two of the major sanctioning bodies. So far this year Sam as been sparring Briggs – Kesseler – Rudy Markussun – Danny Green amongst others who are all bigger than him. Sam is peaking right now and 2007 promises to be the year he will finally get his shot at a World title.