WBA "interim" Super Flyweight champion Liborio Solis (14-3-1, 7) looks to make the second defense of his title as he faces Mexican challenger Victor Zaleta (20-2-1, 10) in a bout that really will only interest the hardcore of the hardcore. Sadly it's a bout that tells us everything we need to know about "interim" titles and why they are a waste of time for us, the fans.
Solis won the "interim" title last December by out pointing Mexican Jose Salgado in a split decision and since then he has made a solitary defense, by defeating the completely undeserving Argentinian Santiago Ivan Acosta (who had lost 7 of his previous 8 bouts!).
Prior to winning the "interim" title, Solis' career had been fought in relative obscurity mainly in his native Venezuela where he debuted back in 2000. It was in Venezuela that Solis would record his first 3 professional victories before suffering a technical draw with Jose Ignacio Sanchez. Oddly following this draw Solis' doesn't seem to have fought again for 5 years before resurfacing in 2007.
On his return to the ring, Solis scored 2 more victories at home before suffering his first loss as he traveled to Aruba and was out pointed by Yenifel Vicente. Solis would quickly bounce back and win his next 4 contests and also claim his first professional title (the Venezuelan Super Flyweight title) before suffering back to back losses away from home (SD9 to Henry Maldonado in Nicaragua, and a UD8 loss to Ricardo Nunez in Panama).
Since the loss to Nunez, Solis has been on a run of 5 straight wins with the highlight of those being the victory, in Mexico over Salgado for the title.
In terms of his style, I've seen pretty limited footage, however he's looked a talented fighter in all that I've seen. He's not a big hitter but lands cleanly with a huge variety of punches (on both the outside and inside) and looks a much more skilled all-round fighter than most other Venezuelans who tend to stand out for one reason another as opposed to being particularly rounded.
The challenger, Victor Zaleta, started his own professional career in 2007 and won his first 6 contests. Amazingly in those 6 bouts he defeated two former world champions (Eric Ortiz-former WBC Light Flyweight champion and Jose Antonio Aguirre-former WBO Minimumweight champion).
Zaleta suffered his first professional loss in his 7th bout as he was out pointed by Faustino Cupul in an attempt to claim the NABF Flyweight title however he bounced back quickly and claimed the vacant WBC FECOMBOX Super Flyweight title in his very next bout by stopping Gilberto Keb Baas. Despite having only fought 8 times up to this point Zaleta had defeated 2 "former" champions and one "future" champion, an impressive stat by anyone's standards.
Zaleta would swiftly move his record to 17-1 defending his WBC FECOMBOX title twice (including scoring a second win over Keb Baas) and adding the CABOFE Super Flyweight title to his cabinet before fighting for his first world title. Sadly for Zaleta he came up short against the incredibly talented Argentinian Omar Andres Narvaez in a bout for the WBO Super Flyweight title.
Since losing to Narvaez, Zaleta has won 3 and drawn one, and defended the WBC FECOMBOX Super Flyweight title twice. Worryingly however Zaleta has been downed in 2 of those 4 fights perhaps showing signs of struggling to make the 115lbs Super Flyweight limit and he has also been somewhat lucky not to have picked up another loss with 3 split decisions (including the draw) in those 4 bouts.
Despite an excellent start to his career Zaleta hasn't really fulfilled his early promise, however he is still a very hard working Mexican fighter, not the most skilled but he has a lot of heart and has got genuinely hurtful power (just ask Gilberto Keb Baas who was stopped in eye catching fashion in their first bout). Sadly however in his biggest fight to date he was totally outclassed by Narvaez who was far too good and almost made Zaleta freeze in the ring.
This is a pretty hard fight to call, though with the home advantage I have to go with Solis to retain his title. Whilst he may not hit hard enough to stop Zaleta I think he's probably a bit too skilled for the Mexican who will refuse to go away but will struggle to enforce his style on the bout.
Prediction- Solis UD12
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