By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing
Middleweight Joel Camilleri (25-8-1, 13 KOs) needed just over sixty seconds to stop former IBF middleweight champion Sam “King” Soliman (49-17-1, 19 KOs) on Friday night at the Melbourne Pavilion, Flemington, Victoria, Australia. Camilleri rocked the 49-year-old Soliman with with a big right hand followed by a barrage of punches that sent Soliman to the canvas and ended the fight. Camilleri claimed the vacant Australasian 160lb. title.
49 years old with 67 pro bouts! Call it a day my man before you get seriously hurt!!
Do the Sanctioning bodies have any sort of pension plan? There needs to be rules in place to protect the boxer.
Like the sanctioning bodies care about anything but sanctioning fees for their increasingly less meaningful titles.
You see it time and time again, old fighters look and feel great in training, they convince themselves and others they still got it, then go out and prove how mistaken they were. I look at aging fighters like this: take a world class sprinter who runs the 100M in under 10 seconds. Once he’s in his 40’s, if he’s still in shape, he may run it in 11 seconds. Still a helluva lot faster than your average pedestrian, but no longer able to able to compete at a world class level. Same with boxers, the whole skill set diminishes a little bit, (or a lot) and that is enough to knock them out of world class contention. Time waits for no man.
But who are you to question him? Who are you to say what he desires in boxing? He is willing to endure the pain in training camp and this given fighter has a long history. Maybe he needs the money and this is his best shot. I say if he wants it give it to him. Soliman had definitely earned it to say when it’s time to call it quits.
I am nobody to say when he calls it quits or what he desires in boxing, which is why I didn’t.
Sure you did. Your little comparison all but says that, but hey according to you, you didn’t.
King Solimans carpet has well trully been rung out
*and
Soliman needs to hang em up period. Great guy and he needs to just enjoy life without brain damage.
Fight should never have happened in the first place. Disrespect for the boxing authorities allowing it to happen.
A guy who once gave Winky Wright a run for his money and now he’s down to this? Time to retire.
Hell, I thought he beat Winky.
In his heyday, Soliman threw some beautifully awkward combos. But man, that was 20 years ago. Sad to see good fighters being retired by boxing. I hope his faculties are still intact and he has invested wisely.
All this nonsense about protecting the boxer, or putting rules in place to keep out the older ones is nonsense, these guys want to fight and I say let them fight. This is what they live for, this is their passion, this is their dream. I don’t think they’re concerned at all about the risk for them. This is a mission to accomplish, a dream to fulfill, or at the very least a goal to work toward. Life is a risk no matter what you do. Let these guys have the freedom to do as the y please. Worry about your own life and health, it’s the only one you can control. Life is just a show, relax and try and enjoy it instead of telling everyone else how you think it should be done.