Vitali Klitschko Close to Deal with Arreola for Sept 26th Bout – News

By Jim Dower: World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (37-2, 36 KO’s) is close to a deal to fight his number #1 WBC contender Chris Arreola (27-0, 24 KO’s) on September 26th at the Staples Center, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Klitschko, 38, had been planning on fighting British heavyweight David Haye, but fickle fighter decided he liked the idea of fighting WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev much better and decided to go in that direction instead.

Arreola, 28, may turn out to be an even more exiting challenger than Haye would have, because Arreola seems to have better whiskers and a more aggressive style than Haye. The last thing that boxing needs is another mismatch and with Vitali’s powerful right hand and Haye’s glass jaw, there was a high possibility that he was going to blow Haye out of the ring had their been a fight between the two heavyweights.

As it is, Haye gets a much less dangerous puncher in the form of 7-foot Valuev and a better chance at winning a title. In turn, Klitschko gets a big 6’4” opponent in Arreola, who may have the power, youth and aggressive enough style to test Vitali in the fight.

Its doubtful Arreola will be able to beat Klitschko, because he’s never been in the ring with anyone as close to being as good, but he will probably make things difficult for Vitali for three to four rounds. With Haye, there was a good chance that Vitali would end matters with his first punch landed.

Rafael also reports that HBO has no interest in showing Hayes November 7th fight with Valuev. It really comes to no surprise, because Valuev hasn’t impressed during the few times that his fights have been shown on U.S. television. In his last fight, Valuev looked horrid in struggling with a 46-year-old Evander Holyfield in December 2008, beating Holyfield by a 12-round majority decision in Switzerland.

Many people outside of Europe felt that Holyfield won the fight, but many European strangely felt that Valuev had done more than enough to get the win. It’s hard to say why the fight was seen differently because it seemed cut and dried to me. Holyfield landed the harder shots, threw the better combinations and basically outworked Valuev.

HBO probably wants to avoid having any potentially dull fights involving Valuev shone in front of a national audience in order to protect their ratings. Haye can be an exciting heavyweight, but he really hasn’t been tested as of yet in the heavyweight ranks, and he might just implode if Valuev forces the Brit to fight.

Haye has already backed out on Wladimir Klitschko, claiming that his back was hurt and couldn’t make the June 20th fight. Haye seemed dumbfounded afterwards when Wladimir refused to wait three to four weeks for Haye’s back injury to heal up. Whatever the case, Haye is counting on the WBA title to be something that will change the Klitschko brothers’ minds in the future. It may not.

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