Sam Soliman

Sam Soliman
Data
Birth Name	Sam Soliman
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	Australian
birthday	November 13, 1973
place of birth	Melbourne
style	Left delivery
size	174 cm
Combat Statistics
Struggles	63
Victories	46
Knockout victories	19th
Defeats	14th
draw	1
No value	1

Sam Soliman (born November 13, 1973 in Melbourne ) is an Australian professional boxer of Egyptian descent and former world champion of the IBF middleweight division.

Career

The experienced martial artist ( taekwondo , karate , kickboxing , amateur boxing ) won the ISKA title in kickboxing against Evangelos Goussis in his sixth fight in 1994 (balance: 25-2). As an amateur boxer, he won 84 out of 95 fights.

He started professional boxing in 1997 and won the Australian cruiserweight championship that same year. In 1999 the Australian championship titles in middleweight and super middleweight followed. In June 2000 he managed an early win against Neville Brown (32-7) and thus winning the Commonwealth Middleweight Championship. However, he lost this title in the first defense on points to Howard Eastman . In the fight for the IBO World Middleweight Championship on January 27, 2001 in Amsterdam, he lost to the Dutch title holder Raymond Joval (24-2) by a majority decision of the judges (2: 1).

After a subsequent victory on points against Cornelius Carr (34-3), he boxed for the first time in September 2001 against his compatriot and later two-time WBA world champion Anthony Mundine (8-0), but was again defeated by a majority decision. He then remained undefeated in 19 fights, including notable victories against Sakio Bika (10-0), Nader Hamdan (32-0) and Raymond Joval (32-2). In a world title elimination match in December 2005, however, he was defeated on points against Ronald Wright (49-3).

After winning a fight against two-time world championship challenger Enrique Ornelas (25-2), he boxed again against Anthony Mundine for the WBA world middleweight championship. However, he lost for the first time in his career prematurely after four knockdowns in the ninth round. But after subsequent wins against Max Alexander (14-0) and Wayne Johnsen (17-2), he stepped into the ring for the third time against Mundine, but lost again on points.

He then won seven more fights, defeating Eromosele Albert (24-5) and Giovanni Lorenzo (31-4). This enabled him on February 1, 2013 a World Cup elimination match against Felix Sturm (37-3). First declared the unanimous winner on points, Soliman was later proven to have taken the performance-enhancing agent methylsynephrine. The fight was therefore judged retrospectively as not counted. After a nine-month suspension, he won early against Les Sherrington (33-6) in December 2013.

On May 31, 2014, he won the rematch against Felix Sturm unanimously on points in Krefeld and thus won his IBF World Championship title. In October 2014, however, he lost on points to Jermain Taylor (32-4). In 2015 he lost to Dominic Wade and in 2016 to Serhiy Derevianchenko .

Web links

• Profile at BoxRec

predecessor	Office	successor
Felix Sturm	Middleweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) May 31, 2014 - October 8, 2014	Jermain Taylor