Arena Boxing: Oner Apologizes For Post-Fight Overreaction

Four days after the dramatic ending of the WBC heavyweight championship fight between Odlanier Solis and Vitali Klitschko and the controversial discussions regarding the result, promoter Ahmet Oner apologizes for his behaviour at the press conference after the fight.

“I simply overreacted and I’m sorry for that”, says Oner. “I lost control because of all the provocations and I shouldn’t have done it. Period. I already apologized to Vitali at the press conference. I respect him. He is a great champion. I also respect Fritz and his excellent work and Wladimir who reacted very well when Vitali was shouting at Solis in the ring because he thought Solis was faking his injury.

“I also agree with Vitali that personal problems between two people shouldn’t influence the sport. But that’s history anyways. Now the most important thing is that Solis will be able to fight again. We are doing all we can to get his knee fixed as soon as possible.”

“La Sombra” will undergo surgery tomorrow (Thursday, March 24) at the hospital of Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Eichhorn who is specialized on professional athletes and knee injuries.

“There’s no sense in talking about a rematch until Solis is back at one hundred percent”, adds Oner. “Of course, we firmly believe that he should get a second chance after what happened last Saturday but we are not begging for the rematch. To me, Solis proved in the first 2:50 minutes of the fight that he is a real threat to both Klitschko brothers. If the injury hadn’t happened he would have given Vitali a hell of a fight.”

In the meantime the WBC has confirmed the result as a technical knockout win for Klitschko due to an accidental injury without any action leading to the accident. “We originally thought that a stoppage because of an injury within the first round would be a technical draw”, says Oner. “But apparently it is only a technical draw if any action leads to the injury – like an accidental headbutt leading to a cut.

“The WBC thinks that Solis hurt his knee without Vitali having anything to do with that. In this case they rule it a tko. To me it doesn’t matter how exactly name it. The only thing that matters is that Solis gets healthy again and can return into the ring. But this interpretation should finally and officially stop the legend of a ko-punch which has been spread by some people.”

Oner also points out that there was no preexisting injury leading to the accident. According to Oner, “This rumour is based on a false quotation spread in the German press. Everybody knows that there are a lot of medical tests for fighters who want to compete in a world title fight. Every professional athletes has some small problems every now and then. But all documents prove that Solis was fit and ready for this fight.

“In addition to that he was in a very tough training camp for eight weeks where he was under permanent observation without any problems and he moved extremely well in the first round and the whole world has seen that. You simply cannot do this with a serious knee injury. This whole story is simply a legend, too.”