BraggingRightsCorner.com - "Sam Soliman Proves He is a World Class Contender"... by Darren Yates

On July 18, 2004 Australia's Sam Soliman faced Raymond Joval of Holland for the
official IBF No.1 contender spot in the Middleweight division. This slot had become vacant after Bernard Hopkins' one sided beating of Robert Allen. Three years prior to the bout Jovial had won a points victory in Holland over Soliman; many experts felt Joval would repeat the task again. Sam disputed the result saying it was a hometown decision and vowed to make amends this time around on neutral ground and with a lot more in the line.

Soliman entered the ring looking relaxed and happy as usual while Joval looked intense and focused. In the first round Soliman established a good effective jab early. Soliman was throwing a high volume of punches and was very elusive in the process. Joval was finding it very difficult to hit Soliman cleanly. Soliman's best punch of the round was a good clean left rip to the body midway through the round.

In rounds two and three the two fighters decide to mix things up a bit more with Soliman getting the better of the exchanges, both in close and from long range. Soliman was keeping his hands down most of the time slipping Joval's punches. He then begins to counter Joval with strong and fast right hand leads, toward the end of round three Soliman starts to land the uppercut.

The tone of the bout had been set, Soliman was showing the American audience
that he is unorthodox, busy, tough and a nightmare to fight. I think a lot of contenders and their managers in the division would have thought it impossible to look good against this guy as Soliman was off balance and out of position a lot, yet still was able to throw punches from unusual angles and still be effective.

In round four Soliman continued the good body punches and mixed it up with more straight right hands and uppercuts. Joval was very ineffective and unable to land anything significant. Towards the end of round four Soliman landed a very good right uppercut to the chin and sent Joval down hard.

The rest of the fight was much the same, Soliman throwing and landing a lot of wild unorthodox punches as well as a lot of good sound technical punches whilst remaining elusive while Joval spent most of his time stalking Soliman ineffectively and throwing punches that mainly missed or only glanced their target.

On the odd occasion Joval caught Soliman cleanly, the punches had no effect. Soliman has a world class chin and has only been knocked down once in his career, by a monster of a punch from Nader Hamden, (Soliman jumped up immediately from that punch, smiled and thoroughly beat Hamden on points).

Soliman did come close to stopping Joval in the 9th round landing so many heavy punches. I think Joval survived through a combination of a huge heart and the fact Soliman had expended a lot of energy and was unable to land the final telling blow.

Both men fought hard and never stopped trying right up until the final bell. When the decision was announced it was unanimous, with Soliman winning all 12 rounds on two of the judges scorecards and 11 round on the other. Sam Soliman had become the IBF's official No.1 contender for the Middleweight title and he expressed his desire to meet the winner of Hopkins-De La Hoya, (good luck getting one of those guys to fight him!) and he even expressed an immediate challenge to Jermain Taylor. It is quite clear Sam Soliman is not afraid to face anyone in the middleweight division.

The pleasing thing for me watching this fight was that Sam Soliman practiced the art of hitting and not being hit (much that is!). However, unlike Roy Jones Jnr, Pernell Whitacker, Sven Ottke, Zab Judah and others Soliman throws a lot of punches and is not afraid of mixing it up with his opponents. It is this type of effort that fans deserve to receive for paying their hard earned money, not to see some boxer throw 10 to 20 punches a round and then spend the rest of the time running around or clinching.

Anthony Mundine should take note that Soliman threw more punches in the first two rounds against Joval than Mundine threw in the whole 12 rounds he fought against Manny Siaca. I think Soliman would easily beat Mundine in a rematch, but Sam has bigger fish to fry!

Being a patriotic Australian I would love to see Sam Soliman face the winner of Hopkins-De La Hoya, but I can't imagine either man wanting to face him. Lets face it, he's not that well known in the U.S.A. and would represent more risk than the payday would be worth compared to other potential bouts with Winky Wright, Shane Mosley or Antonio Tarver.

Against Hopkins, I think Soliman would need to lift his game further as Hopkins is much taller, with greater reach and a hell of a lot more skilled than Joval. Sam would need to put his hands up more, using the good chin should be a last resort. I would pick Hopkins to win a bout against Soliman but I feel Soliman would give Hopkins nightmares with his style.

I would expect Soliman would have better success against Hopkins than Trinidad,
Joppy, Allen and probably De La Hoya. Considering Soliman's speed, skills,
elusiveness and willingness to mix it up, a bout with Hopkins might be a more closely contested bout than most people might think.

I would pick Sam Soliman to beat De La Hoya as Oscar would be frustrated by
Soliman's elusive and unorthodox tactics. Also Soliman has comparable speed
to Oscar's and I think Soliman's chin and the fact that he is the naturally
bigger man would be more than enough to handle any of De la Hoya's punches.
The big difference would be stamina and punch output, Soliman is very fit
and can punch effectively for a full three minutes of every round and Oscar
only fights in spurts and he tends to tire as the fight progresses.

I guess I can dream here that Soliman may get the winner of Hopkins-De La
Hoya. Perhaps if Soliman fights on the undercard against the likes of
Jermain Taylor and scores a victory we may be a step closer to this fight
becoming a reality, for I am pleased Sam has become the IBF Middleweight
number one contender.