By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder’ next fight will be taking place this Saturday night on July 16 against the big punching Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola (36-4-1, 31 KOs) on Showtime Boxing from the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.
This fight has the makings of a fight of the year candidate on paper, because it matches two of the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division at this time. What makes the Wilder-Arreola fight so appealing is that neither of these guys has a backwards gear.
They’re both come forward type of fighters that look for knockouts from the word go. We’re not going to see some slow, plodding type of affair like we did with the Anthony Joshua vs. Dominic Breazeale fight last June. That fight was about as interesting to watch as sitting outside and watching paint dry in the afternoon sun.
The difference between Wilder and Arreola and that fight is that these two American talents are looking to take each other’s heads off with every shot they throw. They don’t do this just to try and entertain the fight fans. It’s their DNA for them to fight in an all-out manner. Also, Wilder and Arreola are both athletic guys that are built for boxing. They didn’t just pump a bunch of weights and then take up boxing. These are born fighters.
Arreola has a lot to prove to the boxing world right now after four consecutive poor performances in the last two years. I don’t know what happened to Arreola. He went from looking sensational against Seth Mitchell in 2013 to looking dreadful in his subsequent fights against Bermane Stiverne, Curtis Harper, Fred Kassi and Travis Kauffman.
In case you didn't already know….. It's going down on July 16th!!! #WilderArreola #PBConFox pic.twitter.com/ZqHZPk0Jvx
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) July 6, 2016
Arreola fought like he had no sense at all in those fights, because it was like he forgotten everything that he previously knew. Arreola was smart enough to know that he needed to box Stiverne in their rematch in May of 2014 after losing a 12 round decision to him in 2013. Instead of adapting in the rematch, Arreola fought the same way in the rematch against Stiverne and ended up getting knocked out in the 6th round.
Deontay, 6’7”, has a lot to prove as well in this fight. He needs to prove that he can take a major shot from a big punching heavyweight without dropping for the 10 count. There are many fans and people in the boxing industry that believe that Wilder can’t take a shot. I mean, there’s no glory in proving that you can take a punch, believe me. However, there are a lot of doubts out there that Wilder’s chin will hold up against Arreola for 12 rounds without it betraying him.
We’ll know after Saturday night whether Wilder can take a big punch if he can’t get Arreola out of there quickly. If Wilder leaves Arreola out there for any length of time, he’s going to get hit with something big. Wilder’s jab and left hook aren’t good enough to keep a big guy like Arreola off him for the full duration of the fight. Wilder will have to use movement and his right hand to try and discourage Arreola from loading up and planting him on the canvas the way he did Seth Mitchell three years ago.