Deontay Wilder vs. Chris Arreola results

By Boxing News - 07/16/2016 - Comments

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(Photo credit: Ryan Hafey/Jordan Hardy/Premier Boxing Champions) By Allan Fox: Fighting with a broken right hand, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) recorded his 36th knockout on Saturday night in stopping former two-time world title challenger Chris Arreola (36-5-1, 31 KOs) at the end of the 8th round at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.

The fight was stopped at the end of the 8th round by Arreola’s corner. His left eye was closed completely and he had nothing left.

The 6’7″ Wilder knocked Arreola down with a big right hand in the 4th round. Arreola barely made it out of the round after getting badly staggered in the closing seconds of the round. In the last seconds of the 7th, Wilder hurt Arreola again with a hard right hand to the head. The round ended before Wilder could finish Arreola off.

“Of course, I want the Furys, I want the Joshuas. The question is: Do they want me?” Wilder said.

In the 8th, Wilder just jabbed and clowned around. He barely used his right hand at all in the round, but he didn’t need it because Arreola was too slow and timid to try and put any real pressure on Wilder.

Arreola had problems with Wilder’s movement throughout the fight. Wilder move away when Arreola would attempt to land his shots. As the fight progressed, Wilder frequently stood and let Arreola come in to land his shots. Wilder would then tie him up to keep Arreola from landing anything meaningful.

The crowd booed the lack of action in round one, as neither guy seemed interested in trying to throw any real shots.

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In the 2nd round, Wilder hit Areola with a right hand that opened up a cut near the bridge of his nose. There was just a brief bit of action late in the round that led to Arreola suffering the cut after he was hit by a hard right hand from Wilder.

Arreola looked like he wanted to make a fight of it, but he didn’t have the hand speed or the reach to land his big power shots. When Arreola did get in punching range, Wilder would lean on him, tie him up, and not let him get leverage on his shots. In the sixth round, Wilder was letting Arreola hit him to the body and making it like it was a comedy.

Arreola did not look good at all in this fight. His hand speed, which was never fast to begin with, was too slow for him to land on a frequent basis. Wilder was there to be hit if Arreola had the speed to land, but he was too slow.

Wilder’s jab was constant throughout the fight, but it was never a particularly fast or hard looking punch compared to some heavyweights in the division. As bad as Arreola was in the fight, Wilder didn’t need to have a great jab because it was such a mismatch.

Besides suffering a hand injury in round four, Wilder also suffered an injured right bicep in the round. It’s unknown at this point whether both injuries will require surgery. If so, then you can imagine that Wilder will be out of the ring for a considerable amount of time. Wilder, 30, came close to getting the knockout in the 4th round after hurting Arreola with some big right hands, but it didn’t happen. It would have been interesting to see how Wilder would have done if he hadn’t been injured.

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“It’s broke,” Wilder said. “I also tore my biceps.”

Wilder landed 152 of 346 punches for a connect percentage of 44, according to CompuBox. For his part, Arreola landed just 52 of 188 punches for a connect percentage of 28.
The attendance at the Legacy Arena tonight was a sizable crowd of 11,974.

Arreola could have continued to fight if his corner was willing to let him, but his face was badly swollen from Wilder’s hard jabs, and it simply wasn’t worth it to let the fight continue. Arreola was cut and his left eye would have likely been completely close in a round or two. If Arreola couldn’t beat Wilder with two eyes earlier in the fight, then he sure wasn’t going to be able to beat him with just one.

At the time of the stoppage in round eight, Wilder was ahead by the scores of 80-71, 80-71 and 79-72. There was no way that you could give Arreola any rounds in the fight because he was mainly just taking punishment and only landing on occasion.

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Wilder’s injured right bicep was iced after the fight and looked in bad shape. If it is torn, then it’s probably going to keep him out of the ring for a good portion of the remainder of 2016. It takes time to come back from a torn bicep.

“[The hand injury] was from an [awkward] punch,” Wilder said via ESPN.com. “I hurt the hand first, and then the biceps. Look at my hand. This thing hurts.”

Wilder was sent to the UAB Hospital after the fight to have his broken right hand and injured bicep to be treated.

One injury is somewhat understandable, but for Wilder to suffer two injuries to his right arm, it makes you wonder if his body is too fragile for the sport. Wilder was out of action a year ago with a broken right hand after his fight against Bermane Stiverne in January 2015. To Wilder’s credit, he was able to come back five months later to stop Eric Molina in the 9th round in June 2015. However, Wilder rarely his right hand in that fight, and didn’t look confident when he did use it.

You’ve got to give Arreola credit for taking the fight with so little time to prepare. It’s not as if he had a long training camp to get ready for the fight.

“He just kept me on the outside,” Arreola said via ESPN.com. “I couldn’t figure him out, plain and simple. I have to give him all the respect in the world because he was just a much better fighter.”

Arreola didn’t look capable of letting his hands go even when he was directly in front of Wilder. Arreola needed to throw head shots, but he focused mostly on throwing to the body.

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Arreola didn’t put in much of an effort into the fight. It’s hard to figure whether it was what Wilder was doing in the fight, or whether Arreola is simply over-the-hill. It’s no secret that Arreola hasn’t looked good in three years since his win over Seth Mitchell in 2013.

In Arreola’s previous fight against Travis Kauffman in December of last year, he barely won the fight. Kauffman isn’t considered a 1st tier heavyweight. Arreola also struggled against journeyman Fred Kassi last year in July in in fighting to a controversial 10 round draw. Arreola appeared to lose that fight.

“I got one of the best jabs in the world because I have super trainers,” Wilder said. “I got Mark Breland, who showed me all kinds of ways to throw my jab. I got Russ Amber, who shows me techniques. I have Jay [Deas], my longtime trainer on everything, and, of course, I have Cuz Hill, who gives me great work on the mitts.”

What Wilder showed tonight, he likely would have lost to IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and Luis Ortiz if it had been them inside the ring with him instead of the past his best Arreola. IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko both would have a great chance of beating Wilder as well. He’s so wide open for shots, and his jab isn’t good enough to control good fighters.

When Wilder does eventually come back from his bicep and hand injuries he sustained tonight, he might have to defend against his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin. The World Boxing Council still haven’t made a decision about what they’re going to do with Povetkin, but it’s quite possible they’ll keep him as Wilder’s mandatory challenger and order the two to face each other. Povetkin is a much tougher nut to crack than Arreola, because he can throw punches and he wouldn’t give Wilder the same kind of respect that Arreola did.