By Allan Fox: Chris Arreola (36-4-1, 31 KOs) is going to need a good pair of wheels this Saturday night if he wants to catch up to WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) this Saturday night, because Wilder says he plans on being mobile in this fight to negate the pressure. Arreola and Wilder will be fighting on July 16 on Premier Boxing Champions on Fox from the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.
Arreola has talked about wanting to get inside Wilder’s punching range so that he can keep him from getting the maximum power on his shots. Wilder says he doesn’t mind the pressure that Arreola will be putting on him because he likes the challenge of fighting pressure fighters, and he’s going to be looking to keep Arreola bottled up.
Wilder says that the come forward type pressure fighters makes it easier for him to score knockouts, because he’s able to hit them with shots that they walk into.
“I like to punish and then knock you out,” said Wilder to the media on Wednesday. “It gives satisfaction to me. I like to see my opponents visiting the hospital every now and then. This is Chris Arreola we’re talking about. That’s all he knows is inside [fighting]. All he knows is pressure. I don’t understand all these fighters, when they face me, they feel that pressure is the blueprint. To me, it’s not. My entire career, I’ve been fighting on my back foot. I’m one of the best heavyweights in the world in fighting on my back foot. His legs are shorter than mine. He has to take two steps to one of mine. The difference between me and other heavyweights is that I knock you out. I don’t just knock you out. I really knock you out to the point where it’s life threatening. Look at my last fight. Look at the Stiverne fight. I told Stiverne I was going to beat him to within an inch of his life, and I did everything I said I done. In the Szpilka fight, I thought I killed him. It’s not just that I knock guys out. It’s the form and the fashion of how I knock them out is what makes me a knockout artist. The pressure come forward style is prone to a knockout. If you pressure me and my arms are already long. I don’t have to really do too much. I love pressure fighter. They give me a challenge. They keep me moving. They keep me thinking. That’s what I love,” said Wilder.