Will Arreola’s conditioning be a problem for him against Klitschko?

By Jason Kim: Unbeaten heavyweight Chris Arreola (27-0, 24 KO’s) is taking a major step forward with his career by facing WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (27-2, 36 KO’s) this month on September 26th, at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California. To be sure, Arreola is one of the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division.

However, in the past years, Arreola has grown increasingly more obese and regardless of whom he fights, he hasn’t taken the effort to pare down his weight. Against the 6’7” Klitschko, Arreola will need to be in the shape of his life for him to get the win.

Klitschko knows that the fight will likely end in knockout for one of the fighters given their huge power, but it might come down to Klitschko bring just the more fit fighter. Arreola hasn’t had to fight beyond the 8th during his six year pro career and hasn’t been pushed hard by any of his mostly over-matched opposition.

This is an area of worry for him, because even if Arreola comes into the fight in the best condition of his life, he still will have to prove that he has the stamina to fight hard for a full 12 rounds without falling apart, that is, if he’s unable to knock Klitschko out.

The chance of Arreola scoring a knockout win are slim judging by Klitschko’s previous fights. He can take a heck of a punch and return fire with even bigger power. What makes him especially hard to fight is that it’s difficult to hit him with a solid shot repeatedly, because of his huge height and reach.

Vitali likes to lean away from his opponents when they come at him, making it hard to connect with a solid shot. The few opponents that Klitschko has been hit hard by have been big fighters like Lennox Lewis, 6’5”, and Corrie Sanders, 6’4”, both of which were able to take advantage of Vitali while he was opening up with his own offense.

That may be Arreola’s only chance at getting some shots in, because it will be next to impossible for him to land anything if Klitschko is focusing on his defense. However, if Arreola’s weight and conditioning will be a huge area of concern in this fight. Even when Arreola is good condition, he looks fat.

Thus far, he’s been able to continue to win because his opponents have been largely lower level fighters without much skill. Only recently, Arreola has started fighting B level fighters, beating Jameel McCline, Travis Walker and Chazz Witherspoon. However, there’s a huge gulf in talent between them and a fighter like Klitschko.

As such, Arreola will be coming into this fight with little experience against quality opposition and a history of weight problems in his fights. Arreola, if he’s to have any chance in this fight, will have to come in at least in the low 230s range.

Anything above that and he’ll likely be too fat to maneuver and around the ring to stay up with Vitali. Arreola can ill afford to have to carry around an extra 30 to 40 pounds of fat and expect to be competitive against a fighter like Klitschko.

In Arreola’s last three fights, he’s been over 250 in each of them. That is way too high for him. If Arreola comes in that fat for Klitschko, he’ll be knocked out. This isn’t Travis Walker or Jameel McCline that he’ll be fighting.

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