By Chris Williams: According to Doug Fisher at The Ring, unbeaten heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (27-0, 24 KO’s) hasn’t been training at 100% for his September 26th fight against World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. Fisher says that he has heard from sources – “Gym rats” – that frequent Joe Goosen’s Ten Goose gym in Van Nuys, California, that Arreola, 28, has “skipped out on more than one training session during this camp.”
That’s not good news if you’re a boxing fan of Arreola, because he has his work cut out for him as it is, because he’s facing one of the best fighters in the heavyweight division in Vitali Klitschko and he’ll need to have every second he can of training in order for him to have a chance at beating Klitschko.
Arreola can ill afford to not come into this fight at the best shape possible, because he’s looked positively enormous in his three fights weighing in well over 250 for each of them. 250 may not sound like a lot, but when you consider that Arreola looks fat even at 235, arguably his best weight, the 250+ makes him look more like a small bear than an actual fighter.
Arreola hasn’t looked really good in the ring since defeating Chazz Witherspoon by a 3rd round disqualification last year in June. Arreola came in at 239, and basically overpowered Witherspoon, battering him at will and knocking him to then canvas as if he was an over-matched sparring partner rather than a fringe contender.
But for some reason, Arreola’s weight ballooned immediately after that fight as he came into his next bout at a huge 258, and looked like he was wearing a big coat of fat around his body. I’m not sure if Arreola celebrated after the Witherspoon fight and rewarded himself with food or what, but whatever the case, Arreola great outward after that fight.
Arreola doesn’t have much time to train now for the Klitschko fights because its’ only three weeks away. However, Arreola needs to take advantage of the remaining time that he has to ensure that he comes in for the fight reasonably good condition.
I don’t expect to see Arreola at 205 or 215, which is probably the weight Arreola would be at if he stripped off most of the fat on his body, but I do think Arreola needs to weigh in the mid 230s if he wants to have a fighting chance against Klitschko. Arreola doesn’t have the size to just run over the bigger 6’7” 250 pound Klitschko, so Arreola is going to have to count on being in good enough shape to wear down Klitschko over the long haul.
Klitschko is 38, and at that age thinks can break down if Vitali is pushed hard enough. Arreola won’t be able to overwhelm Klitschko with punches, but if his conditioning is good enough, Arreola can possibly take Klitschko deep and wear him out with big thunderous punches.
Klitschko has never had good endurance, and was worn out by a small Chris Byrd nine years ago. This is what Arreola needs to be focusing on trying to do. Besides Arreola’s advantage of youth, he’ll also have the Staple’s center crowd on his side, because it will likely be filled with a lot of Mexican supporters from him from the neighboring area.
Klitschko seemed uncomfortable years ago in his fight with Byrd, when the German crowd turned on Vitali and began to actively support Byrd, cheering loudly ever punch he threw in the later rounds. This seemed to cause Klitschko to stress out and gave Byrd a lot of confidence. The same could happen on September 26th.
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