Soliman pulls out of title eliminator against N'Dam

[DA GOOSE]

http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/post ... e-theaters

Wonder why?

[Perseus]

There really was no upside to this fight.
I haven't seen what the purse would have been but it probably was not a very good payday for Soliman.
It is extremely unlikely that HBO would be interested in having GGG fight a 40-something opponent so his mandatory shot would be delayed for some unknown period of time and at Sam's age he can't play the waiting game
Currently nobody is jumping in line for a shot at GGG, if Soliman wins there is no Felix Sturm out there to throw money at him for the chance to win his IBF ranking.
Plus there is the fact that neither N'Dam nor Soliman have a realistic shot of beating GGG to begin with.
N'Dam isn't a bum but he's not a world-beater and the current version of Soliman is a far cry from the Soliman that gave Winky Wright a tough night.................ten years ago.

Soliman probably has opportunities just as good or better at home or being used to test another young fighter on the road.
Assuming Soliman doesn't have an injury of some sort they likely have some other fight in the works.

[AntonS]

There really was no upside to this fight.
I haven't seen what the purse would have been but it probably was not a very good payday for Soliman.
It is extremely unlikely that HBO would be interested in having GGG fight a 40-something opponent so his mandatory shot would be delayed for some unknown period of time and at Sam's age he can't play the waiting game
Currently nobody is jumping in line for a shot at GGG, if Soliman wins there is no Felix Sturm out there to throw money at him for the chance to win his IBF ranking.
Plus there is the fact that neither N'Dam nor Soliman have a realistic shot of beating GGG to begin with.
N'Dam isn't a bum but he's not a world-beater and the current version of Soliman is a far cry from the Soliman that gave Winky Wright a tough night.................ten years ago.

Soliman probably has opportunities just as good or better at home or being used to test another young fighter on the road.
Assuming Soliman doesn't have an injury of some sort they likely have some other fight in the works.

That's exactly my opinion

[Like a Boss]

Hassan N'Dam will instead fight Avtandil Khurtsidze, in what will be a rematch. They first met 5 years ago with N'Dam winning on points.