Arreola on shortlist of opponents for Wilder

By Boxing News - 05/27/2016 - Comments

Image: Arreola on shortlist of opponents for Wilder

By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder could be facing the capable of Chris Arreola next on July 16 or in August, according to Dan Rafael. This would be a fine choice for Deontay in a voluntary defense to keep him busy while he waits for World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman to decide what he’s going to do with the positive drug tested Alexander Povetkin.

Wilder had his scheduled fight against Povetkin postponed after the Russian tested positive for meldonium a week and a half before their fight on May 21. The fight was then postponed courtesy of the WBC. Sulaiman said Wilder could take an optional defense but he wants him to do it soon; hence he’s in a rush to get a suitable opponent for July or August.

Arreola is a fine choice for Deontay to show off his skills. Things haven’t been going well for Arreola lately, however, because he’s been fighting a lot of guys that have the wrong style for his game. Putting Arreola in with slick fighters like Fred Kassi was just wrong. Arreola needs guys that come straight at him.

Wilder’s management haven’t wrapped up the deal for the Arreola fight yet, according to Rafael, but hopefully this quality fight can be put together.

To be sure, Arreola has had a bit of bad luck lately with his positive drug test after his win over Travis Kauffman, his 10 round draw against Kassi, and his 6th round knockout loss to Bermane Stiverne. Arreola still looks like the same fighter that he was in the past. He’s just had some hard luck as of late. I think Arreola still beats most of the heavyweights in the division. Stiverne obviously is a bad match-up for Arreola.

The Kassi fight easily could have been a win for Arreola if he’d been in better shape, and used his jab a bit more.

Wilder needs a nice war with Arreola to get the attention of the fight fans and to help him get ready for some interesting fights ahead. One of them could be against Anthony Joshua in the future. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said this past week that Deontay and Tyson Fury are the guys that he’s interested in matching against Joshua as soon as possible. Joshua has to take care of Dominic Breazeale first on June 25, and after that we’ll see whether Joshua faces Fury or Wilder. Wladimir Klitschko could remove Fury from the equation by whipping him in their fight on July 9.