Odlanier Solis skips tune-up fight, will face Tomasz Adamek on December 22

Odlanier Solis has decided to skip a scheduled October 12 fight in Madrid, Spain, against Leif Larsen, and will instead head straight into a December 22 bout with Tomasz Adamek, which will be broadcast on NBC.

Solis (18-1, 12 KO) has fought just once since his TKO-1 loss to Vitali Klitschko in March 2011, which came as a result of a knee injury that required surgery. In May of this year, Solis defeated Konstantin Airich in Texas via wide 12-round decision.

The benefit of a fight with former shot putter/football player Larsen would have been shaking off a little rust, but the downside was risking potential injury -- even a bad cut or something minor could have knocked out the more lucrative fight, and the bigger professional opportunity, as the IBF will sanction Adamek-Solis as an eliminator for their No. 2 ranking, essentially a semi-final eliminator with the winner in theory facing Kubrat Pulev, and then a title shot after that.

Adamek (47-2, 29 KO) has gone 3-0 in 2012, most recently beating Travis Walker in an exciting back-and-forth slugfest.