Per Ake Persson: April 27, Hamburg, Germany: Cuban pro debutant Odlanier Solis needed just two punches and 47 seconds of the very first round to stop German champ Andreas Sidon. Solis floored Sidon with a big right and as Sidon got up and was allowed to continue, another right left him out cold on his feet and the fight was stopped. Sidon needed help to get back to his corner but it took some time before he understood what had happened..
Promoter Ahmet Oener was very happy: “We don´t need a long build up for Solis, we are looking at real opponents, guys like Brian Minto or Ray Austin for Solis next. Sidon has been a main event fighter at Universum shows and at our show he was in a four rounder against a pro debutant.”
Arena´s two other Cuban debutants also won but had to go the distance against stand up opponents. Feather Yuriorkis Gamboa impressed against Alexan Manvelyan while bantam Yan Barthelemy appeared to have some problems against Russian Ravil Mukhamadiarov.
Pedro Carrion outscored Ozcan Cetinakaya over ten in an Int´l German heavyweight title fight.
Herbie Hide contined his comeback at cruiser and controversially knocked out Czech Pavol Polakovic in the sixth. Hide was the first to admit he hadn´ t looked good. “Every fighter needs fights like this to get back to where they once were.”
Turkish hope Selcuk Aydin impressed in stopping Rastislav Kovac in the third of a scheduled eight-rounder, jr welters.
Lots of fighters on hand: EBU heavy champ Vladimir Virchis, his sparring partner Larry Donald, Juan Carlos Gomez, WBO jr middle ruler Sergey Dzinziruk and Sinan Samil Sam, who did color commentary for Turkish TV.
Next Arena promotion is June 16 in Ankara, Turkey, with Sam and Gomez in headlining bouts. Solis, Gamboa and Barthelemy are all likely to fight there as well.