Exclusive Interview: Sam ‘The King’ Soliman.

“He could hit someone on the soles of their feet while they were skipping,” is how one pundit described the hand speed of Australia’s world rated middleweight Sam Soliman. “He’s got a point,” laughs Soliman down the line from Sydney, his wit as quick as his hands. Sam is an affable guy, a rarity in this day and age of professional sports, and he

has been known to mingle in the crowd with his supporters before a fight, always sporting a smile. Equal parts Pernell Whitaker, Marlon Starling and Naseem Hamed, “King’ Sam is riding the crest of a sixteen fight winning streak which shows no sign of letting up. In July this year he fought in the US for the first time and, in a whitewash, he completely shut out the highly rated Dutchman Raymond Joval to assume the IBF’s number one ranking, and put himself in line for a shot at middleweight great Bernard Hopkins. With forty-year-old Hopkins probably saving himself for one last great payday, the chances of that fight happening are slim. But, with new kid Jermain Taylor, Oscar de la Hoya, Howard Eastman and Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad all floating around, there is no shortage of great options out there in this marquee division. While Sam trains hard and waits for his options to become clearer, he was kind enough to give us some of his time.

Greig Johnston: Your last fight on the sixth of November against Diego Castillo ended when Castillo allegedly suffered a dislocated shoulder, is that a good thing or did you find it frustrating because you were looking for some rounds?

Sam Soliman: No, not at all. It was a couple of good clean body shots and the fight ended the way I wanted it to end, not the way he said it ended. It doesn’t bother me one bit, because everyone from the back of the stadium could hear the crack. Everyone was cheering, they would have been booing if it had have been stopped when nothing happened. No one booed, everyone was cheering because they saw the body shots. My trainer said he’d never seen a left rip cause a dislocated shoulder. It’s in black and white. We’re going to get the video and watch it one or two more times just to work on that punch that I threw for my next opponent.

GJ: Speaking of your next opponent, is there any news on who that’s going to be?

SS: We’re looking at something in December, but I haven’t got a name yet. I will know at the end of this week, I will know on Friday.

GJ: You’re rated number one by the IBF, and you are top ten in both the WBC and WBA. Bernard Hopkins holds all the aces in those organizations. Getting him in the ring might be tough. Who else at 160-pounds would you like to fight?

SS: Apart from Bernard Hopkins, there’s two more people. There’s Howard Eastman and Jermain Taylor.

GJ: Taylor has been touted as the next big thing, have you seen him fight and how do you rate him?

SS: I haven’t heard he’s the next big thing. I rate him as one of the better boxers in America but he hasn’t been tested yet, and I’m going to give him that test if the fight comes up.

GJ: Were you impressed by Felix Sturm against De La Hoya?

SS: Yeah, well they both kept a vigorous pace the whole way through and they both did what they had to do. I thought it was a good fight.

GJ: Trinidad against Mayorga. I thought Mayorga made Trinidad look very good because of his style, he’s very predictable. Someone such as yourself, you’re a lot harder to hit. How do you think a match up would go with Tito?

SS: The reason we’d do great with Tito is because we’d knock him out. (laughs).

GJ: You think so?

SS: Yeah, Tito would underestimate us and we’d take him out. Tito has not been tested to the body, not once, in any of his fights, ever.

GJ: Hopkins and De La Hoya showed how to beat him. He struggles with guys who are slippery.

SS: Well, there you go. In front of you, he’s got a lot of power. We’re not chinny either, so in twelve rounds, lets say he lands one or two punches, nothing happens. At the pace we go to, he doesn’t throw enough punches to match it. You’ve seen our work rate. People have said, well you’ve fought so and so, would you be able to do that against Bernard Hopkins. Well the so and so’s records that I’ve fought have all been undefeated fighters, or guys who have had no more than three or four losses in over thirty fights. So there would be no difference in fighting guys like Jermain, Felix Trinidad or Bernard Hopkins. I will keep that same pace. That’s how me and my trainer train for every single fight, regardless of the opponent.

GJ: You seem settled now at 160. What if an offer was to arrive from a Green or a Mundine, would you like to fight at 168 again?

SS: Well, after we’ve won the world title, defended it a couple of times, made some money, proved we’re the best in the middleweight division, we can move up to super middleweight and try a new challenge. The way Roy Jones did. Unfortunately for him it didn’t work out because he jumped down from heavyweight to light heavyweight, he was all over the place. I wouldn’t go that far, because Roy was at 160 at one stage. But I would go up to super middle, even light heavy. I’ve fought at cruiserweight against Peter Kinsella. Mosese Sorovi who was a cruiserweight who dropped down to light heavyweight. I knocked out a couple of men at that weight. But I wasn’t managed correctly. I wasn’t managed at all, I was my own manager and was beating guys at that weight. Now I’ve got a good manager and I’m fighting at the right weight in the middleweight division. But mate, the sky’s the limit on how high we can go after this.

GJ: How disappointing was the Mundine fight (Soliman dropped a highly controversial decision to Mundine in September 2001), and do you think that Anthony is improving?

SS: He is improving, but by the same token it’s similar to what we were talking about with Trinidad-Mayorga. Mayorga made Tito look good by standing in front of him. When Mundine fights Sean Sullivan, he’s always gonna look great. Then when he came up against a puncher like Siaca, he didn’t look as impressive.

GJ: What would you regard as your career highlight so far? The controversial loss to Mundine, or the Raymond Joval fight have to be up there?

SS: Joval by far. That was faultless. Everyone asks me what’s your favorite fight. Before Joval it was the Nader Hamdan fight. But we’ve polished that off now completely. We all watched the video together, me, my trainer, my manager and we all agree that was the best. Everything we trained to do in that fight, we did it. We’re not going to look back from there, we’re going to look forward to bigger and better things.

GJ: I’ve read that you’ve done some sparring with Paul Briggs. How do you thing he’s progressing?

SS: It’s brilliant that we’ve got fighters in all weight divisions in Australia now. We’ve got Danny Green, Paul Briggs, Skinny Hussein, Vic Darchinyan, Robbie Peden. Australian boxing right now is great. Out of all the names I just mentioned, only one is not number one in the world, and he (Danny Green) dropped Beyer. So the only one that’s not number one in the world, dropped the world champion twice and only lost the decision because of something controversial. We’ve got a whole bunch of guns here in Australia, and I believe they are all very promising for world titles.

GJ: If you could pick a favorite all time fighter, and a favorite current boxer, who would they be?

SS: Pernell Whitaker. He’d be my favourite. Similar style, and he was a bit of a character as well. Hard to hit, with his evasiveness, skills and savvy. Present day, it’s hard. I like Trinidad, I’m a big fan of Trinidad (laughs). “Winky’ Wright, to beat Mosley the way he did when most people didn’t give him a chance. There’s so many legends out there, I’ve got posters on my wall of the guys I’m going to be fighting soon. I’ve got posters of Hopkins and Oscar De La Hoya on my walls. When those guys started fighting, I was still in the amateurs. It’s good to be amongst the best in the world out there and even after the fight, I’ll still regard them as the best.

GJ: Thanks a lot for your time today Sam. I understand you’re getting married next month, so all the best with that, and I hope that you get a shot at the title before too long.

SS: Thanks a lot mate.

Greig Johnston can be reached at levibillups@yahoo.com