By Erik Schmidt: According to German boxing news, WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (37-2, 36 KO’s) is looking to replace David Haye with undefeated American Chris Arreola (27-0, 24 KO’s) for a bout that will be taking place in either October or November of this year in Los Angeles.
If Vitali comes out victorious, he would then take on World Boxing Council number #11th ranked contender James Toney. Arreola’s name has been mentioned frequently as an opponent that Vitali would like to fight.
The only question about a fight with Arreola is whether or not October or November would give him enough time to get in shape for the fight. It’s unknown how heavy Arreola is at this time, but if he’s in the 280 to 290 range, he may not make be able to strip off enough lard to get down to a suitable weight by those dates. In his last three fights against Israel Carlos Garcia, Travis Walker and Jameel McCline, Arreola has weighed in the mid 250s and looked in horrible condition.
Given that those were all B-class fighters, Arreola was able to get away with being so heavy. However, it would be a different story if he were to face Vitali, and it’s doubtful that Arreola or his promoter would want to have a fight against Klitschko unless he was in tip top shape. Arreola’s best weight is around 240. However, depending on how heavy Arreola is at this time, that may not be a weight that Arreola can make without stripping off a lot of muscle in the process.
Arreola breezed through his first 25 opponents in his pro career, but ran into some problems against Travis Walker, who took advantage of a out of shape looking Arreola and knocked him down in the 2nd round after running into two huge rights from Walker. Later in the round, Arreola dropped Walker. And in the 3rd, Arreola came back and stopped Walker in the 3rd.
However, Walker showed that Arreola can be hurt and exposed Arreola’s poor defense. Most of Arreola’s big shots came at close range where he likes to throw his big hooks. But Walker showed that Arreola can be nailed from long distance with power shots.
In Arreola’s fight with the journeyman McCline, Arreola dominated most of the fight but was staggered in the fight from a couple of big right hands from McCline in the 3rd. That wasn’t a good sign because this should have been a fight that Arreola won easily, yet he was hurt again. And for a fight as important as this, it was alarming to see how grossly out of shape that Arreola came into the fight, weighing a hefty 255.
Vitali, 38, was left high and dry this week after his opponent David Haye, whom he was scheduled to fight on September 12th, backed out suddenly and went in a different direction by agreeing to fight WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev. Thankfully, Haye pulled out soon enough for Klitschko to start looking for an appealing opponent.
That wasn’t the case last month when Haye, again, pulled out of a fight with a Klitschko, this time Vitali’s younger brother, IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Haye said that he had injured his back and couldn’t fight. Wladimir then had to settle for a bout against replacement Ruslan Chagaev, whom he easily defeated by a 9th round TKO on June 20th in Germany.
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