KEY WEST -- With three belts on the line, two Olympic medalists and a national Golden Gloves champion competing, as well as the first ever heavyweight bout, tonight's Fight Night in the Keys certainly appears to be the strongest card in the event's five-year history.

Now, with weigh-ins and pre-match preparation out of the way, all that's left is for the fighters to step in the ring.

The event -- which will begin at 7 p.m. and be broadcast live on FSN from Mallory Square -- will be headlined by a WBC International Heavyweight Championship bout between Cuban Olympic gold medalist and three-time world amateur champion Odlanier Solis (15-0, 11 KOs) and Carl Drummond (26-2, 20 KOs).

That scheduled 10-round heavyweight match, the first in the event's history, was made possible thanks to Top Rank's involvement in putting on and promoting the show.

"If somebody had asked me a year ago if a fight like this could ever take place in Key West, I honestly would've said no, it would be impossible," said local manager Si Stern, who has coordinated the previous cards in Key West with business partner Dave Johnson. "This is a big-dollar fighter that we could never afford."

Stern and others involved in the show, however, have pointed to the undercard as its biggest strength. Tonight's "B-fight" will pit Mexican Alejandro Lopez (15-0, 4 KOs) against Jorge Diaz (12-0, 8 KOs) in an eight-round super bantamweight bout.

Damian Frias (16-2, 11 KOs), who fights out of Stern's Key West camp, will go up against national Golden Gloves champion Brad Solomon (9-0, 3 KOs) for the Florida State welterweight championship, and local boxer Danny Van Staden (8-4, 4 KOs) will take on Ray Betancourt (7-4, 2 KOs) for the Florida State super lightweight title. Both of those bouts are scheduled for eight rounds, and they will mark the first time ever that two state belts have been decided on the same card.

"These guys would be headliners on another card," Stern said. "This is the kind of card you would see in Las Vegas or New York. I've been to a lot of fights, and I can honestly say this is the best undercard I've ever seen. Everyone is so evenly matched."

Also on the undercard, Marcus Upshaw (11-4-1, 5 KOs), another of Stern's fighters, will battle Scott Ball (11-6, 8 KOs) in a six-round middleweight bout; Luis Franco (3-0, 3 KOs) will take on Walter Estrada (35-12, 24 KOs) in a six-round super featherweight fight; and Glen Tapia (3-0, 2 KOs) will face Carlos Rodriguez (3-2) in a four-round super welterweight match.

Tonight's show will provide a measure of redemption for Frias, who has had several fights canceled at the last minute and fell to Freddy Hernandez in his last bout in October. Before that, his two previous fights were in January of 2008 and 2009 in Mallory Square, both decision victories.

"For some reason, they support me a lot down here," said Frias, who is 3-0 lifetime in Key West. "It surprised me how many people have supported me here. Things like that help a lot."

Frias experienced the flip-side of that in his loss in October. That bout was in Laredo, Texas, just off the Mexican border, and Hernandez, a Mexican native, held a decided crowd advantage.

"That was my first time really fighting in somebody else's backyard," Frias said. "When you go out like that, everything has to be right. You have to be focused because it's basically everything against you."

With a win tonight, Frias would claim a state championship, the third belt of his career.

"Of course I want to win a world championship belt, but anything I can gather along the way to me is an accomplishment," he said. "It's a trophy and it shows progress in my career and is something that'll always be with me when I retire."

When tonight's show is over, Stern said he's confident that Key West will cement its place as a top-notch boxing city.

"Once they see the magnitude of this show," he said, "I really think the big promotion companies are going to be calling us and asking to do shows down here."

wjacobson@keysnews.com