By Matt Stein: If the rumor of Wladimir Klitschko (52-3, 46 KOs) potentially facing contender Chris Arreola (26-0, 23 KOs) in May turns out to be true, I wonder if this is a fight that Arreola is in fact ready for at this early stage in his career? Though he’s had 26 fights and beaten all his opponents, his opposition has been very limited at this point, with perhaps Travis Walker, perhaps, his best opponent to date.
That’s not exactly the kind of preparation that Arreola, a 2001 National Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight Champion, needs going into a fight with Wladimir. This could turn out to be a huge mismatch for the young 27-year-old Arreola, and depending on how bad he’s beaten by Wladimir, it could set Arreola back considerably in his progress for a world title.
If I were his management, I would be gunning for Nikolay Valuev or Ruslan Chagaev, the WBA heavyweight champions, who are a whole lot easier than having to face IBF/WBO title holder Wladimir Klitschko. Don’t get me wrong, Arreola can certainly punch hard enough to defeat Wladimir, especially if he can land something big early on, but the longer the fight goes, the better than chance that Wladimir stops Arreola.
Part of the problem for Arreola, it would seem, is his weight issues, as he’s come in overweight in his last two bouts by 20 pounds or more. At first, it wasn’t a big deal because he was only facing Israel Carlos Garcia, not a real big threat to him, but then Arreola once again came in overweight, this time for the powerful Walker.
This seemed to indicate that Arreola didn’t have sense of urgency to needed to prepare hard enough for the fight to take off the extra tonnage. As a result, a fight that may have been much easier for him turned out to be tougher than expected fight, with Arreola getting hurt in the 1st round and then eating the canvas in the 2nd.
Arreola would later stop Walker in the 3rd, but it wasn’t a good performance nonetheless due to his knockdown, poor defense and conditioning. The extra weight didn’t seem to effect Arreola’s stamina, however, as he let his hands go as often as he usually does, but the extra fat did seem to make him slower against Walker and Garcia.
That’s something that Arreola can’t afford to lose in a fight with the much faster and experienced Wladimir, because he’ll already have a long reach advantage over him going into the fight. Wladimir’s jab may be all he needs in the fight, because he’ll obviously be retreating each time that Arreola comes forward, and will probably not want to risk throwing a right hand until it’s absolutely necessary.
This won’t be a fight like Arreola’s last few opponents, who either tried to stand and trade shots with him or let him cut off the ring on them. Wladimir would have to plan on moving much like he did in the Samuel Peter fight, in which he moved constantly and gave Peter few opportunities to land his big shots.
However, it doesn’t seem likely that Arreola will be able to have much success against Wladimir regardless of conditioning or strategies. Wladimir appears to be a level above Arreola in skills, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.
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