Odlanier Solis Returning on October 14

Odlaneir Solis is recovered from his knee surgery, and will return to the ring on October 14 in Germany, reports Dan Rafael.

Solis (17-1, 12 KO) will be facing German club fighter Varol Vekiloglu (18-2-1, 10 KO) in his comeback fight. The 31-year-old Solis has been shelved since blowing out his right knee in a KO-1 loss to Vitali Klitschko on March 19, a fight where he came to the ring in better shape than usual, but still appeared too heavy in the eyes of most. Solis, on a 6'1" frame, weighed in at 246¾ pounds, which was much lower than his previous four fights, where he weighed in between 262½ and 271.

Though the fight only lasted 2:59 before a glancing blow sent Solis awkwardly tumbling into injury, many did believe he looked to at least have a game plan that could have been effective against Klitschko, which is more than can be said for many recent opponents of the dominant heavyweight brothers. In the end, he lost quickly and in a way that had many questioning his conditioning (nothing new), but Solis is a talent, and there's no question about that. It's all about dedication now, and hopefully after the injury we'll see something different from Solis going forward.

The first fight isn't going to make anyone think more of him as a fighter no matter how he wins it, because Vekiloglu isn't even so much as a deep fringe contender or faded veteran. He's just a guy with a record that looks OK before you actually read the paper it's on. It's nothing more than a pure comeback fight to get Solis some action.