Arreola: “He [Klitschko] Beat My A–“

By Sean McDaniel: At the post fight press conference, WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and challenger Chris Arreola sounded off paying there respects to one another and giving descriptions of what it was like for them to go at for 10 rounds. Arreola, 28, had this to say about his 10th round TKO loss to Klitschko: “Plain and simple, he [Klitschko] beat my a–. Whatever it was, that’s his style. It works for him. He knows how to use his distance. He pulls back and counters with it.”

Arreola is referring to Klitschko’s tendency to lean back away from Arreola when he would come forward looking to land. Klitschko would let Arreola throw a shot and would lean away from the shot and let it miss. Klitschko would then immediately fire back a short right or left hand to the head. He never used much of a windup on any of his shots and would instead simply reach across and tag Arreola with a hard punch to the head.

Arreola: “I was trying not to fall into that but I did a couple of times and he got me with right hands and over hooks. That’s his [Klitschko] style and that’s how he fights. He’s strong.”

Arreola often came barreling forward and Klitschko would meet him with jabs as he came rushing in. When Arreola would get really close, Klitschko would step to one side and counter him with straight rights and left hooks.

It didn’t look like much to watch Klitschko do it, because he often didn’t look like he was punching very hard. But the blows started to accumulate after awhile and Arreola wasn’t to make contact all that often because of Klitschko’s movement. It had to be frustrating for Arreola, especially as the rounds went by and he realized he was slipping further and further behind in the fight.

Arreola: “He made me fight his fight and every time I thought I had the upper hand, his [Klitschko] experience would show through in the ring. He found a way to move around and for me to chase him.”

Chase is the right word for what Arreola was doing as the fight progressed into the later rounds. He was having a hard time making contact with Klitschko when he would move in slowly and methodically. So out of desperation, perhaps, Arreola began to chase after Klitschko as he would back away in a futile attempt to land anything.

Most of the time, this failed to pay off for Arreola as Klitschko would counter him while moving backwards. Sometimes, however, Arreola was able to score some nice shots to the body and occasionally to the head before Klitschko would grab him in a clinch. The movement by Klitschko seemed to really have Arreola confused, because he missed with his shots quite often and didn’t know how to adjust his shots to make them land.

One of the problems that Arreola had was his lack of experience in fighting opponents that use a lot of movement like Klitschko did on Saturday night. Up until this fight, Arreola had been put in with fighters who either stood directly in front of him or those who moved in slow circles jabbing. In both cases, Arreola found it easy to land his big shots. Against Vitali, Arreola looked like a student who wasn’t prepared for his final exam and was totally confused by what he was seeing in front of him.

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