By Jim Dower: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (26-0, 23 KOs) destroyed power puncher Travis Walker (28-2-1, 22 KOs) in a 3rd round stoppage in a International Boxing Federation (IBF) Heavyweight Title Eliminator match on Saturday night at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California. Arreola was knocked down after getting hit with two right hands in the 2nd round. However, he quickly returned the favor, knocking Walker down in the same round with a hard right hand.
In the 3rd round, Arreola finished matters by knocking Walker down with a huge left hook to the head that sent Walker into the corner on his back. Although Walker looked as if he could have continued fighting, referee Jack Reiss never gave him a chance, stopping the fight at 0:13 of the round.
Walker looked upset at the stoppage, naturally, but it was probably best that the fight be stopped, because Walker still looked shaky from the previous round knockdown and would have had little chance to survive if the fight had continued on a little longer.
Nevertheless, Arreola, ranked #2 in the World Boxing Council, #4 in both the IBF and WBO, and #8 in the WBA, showed excellent power and good recuperative ability that enabled him to recover from being hurt in both the first and second rounds.
What he didn’t have, though, was a good defense as he immediately retreated to the ropes in the first round and took a lot of punishment from Walker in the round, getting stunned early by a couple of rock solid right hands thrown from Walker.
Arreola showed the same defensive lapses in the 2nd round when Walker hurt him with a couple of big right hand shots and put him down. While Arreola was able to get off the canvas, recover enough to hurt Walker and put him down, it was mostly because of Walker’s poor defensive ability of his own and sloppy fighting technique that made this possible.
Against a skilled fighter like IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who likes to fight at a distance, Arreola would have had few chances to land his short bombs. Additionally, Arreola’s poor condition in which he came into the fight, weighing in at a portly 254 pounds and looking a minimum of 25 pounds overweight, would likely cause him big problems against a fast heavyweight like Wladimir or a power and in shape one like his brother, Vitali Klitschko.
Arreola later had this to say about the fight “I just got caught, Man [referring to his 2nd round knockdown by Walker], it’s very simple. He’s a very strong guy. I felt it right away. That’s why I backed up to the ropes. I wanted to see what he had to offer, and you know what, Man, he’s strong, strong guy.”
“I was thinking that I got to get back up [still speaking about his knockdown] and got to get the point back any way possible; Get the round back and drop him a couple of times. I wanted to see how much power he had and see the type of punches he threw, whether he threw straight punches, loopy punches. And try to see if I could counter him in the later rounds, especially in the first round. That was when he has his most strength, and the most power, and that was when he was going to be his most active. That’s why I was trying to get him into the corner. Trying to lure him in and try to figure him out a little.”
“I got to come ready, meaning in better shape than this fight. [now referring to a possible future fight with one of the Klitschko brothers] I wasn’t worried about my weight this time. All I was worried about was going to war this man. And went to war for two rounds, and that’s all I needed. As soon as the fight was over, I was thinking about Klitschko already.”
The win sets Arreola on course for a fight against the winner of Wladimir Klitschko vs. Hasim Rahman, which takes place on December 13th.
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