By Dave Lahr: Heavyweight Chris Arreola (27-1, 24 KO’s) will be fighting on December 5th against a still to be determined opponent. Arreola, who up until his one-sided 10th round stoppage loss at the hands of World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko on September 26th, was considered to be the best heavyweight in the United States.
However, because of the one-sided nature of Arreola’s defeat at the hands of Klitschko, you would probably find few boxing fans who still feel that Arreola is the best that America has to offer at this point.
Arreola took a one-sided beating from the 38-year-old Klitschko for 10 long rounds and only rarely landed anything of note against the 6’7″ Klitschko. But despite getting beaten to a pulp and embarrassed a little, Arreola won’t be sitting back and crying his eyes out about his loss. He’s going to be stepping right back into the ring against someone, hopefully good.
There was a rumor that Arreola would be fighting David Tua but that’s not going to happen. It seemed like a long shot when it was mentioned because Arreola would be a very tough opponent for Tua, who is on a comeback and trying to revive his stalled boxing career.
The good news about Arreola fighting in December is that it won’t give him time enough to pile on weight like he sometimes down in between fights. Before his last fight against Vitali Klitschko, Arreola had to drain down from a hefty 294 for the fight. Arreola ended up at 251, which was probably 15 pounds too much for him. Arreola fights well in the 235 range and the extra 15 pounds that he was carrying around for the Klitschko fight seemed to be all fat.
Taking off 43 pounds during his training camp for the Klitschko fight had to have left Arreola in less than optimum condition for the fight. That’s way too much weight to have to take off during a training camp and Arreola should have thought a little harder before letting himself get so drastically overweight. He can’t afford to continue to do this if he wants to be effective in the heavyweight division.
If that means that Arreola has to fight 10 times a year to stay in shape, then he and his management need to consider doing that for him until he learns to keep his weight at a more reasonable level. Arreola can’t be coming in at a heavy 250 for his fights because he looks much too fat and slow at that weight. Arreola is good enough to beat many of the lesser heavyweights at that weight, but against a top contender like Eddie Chambers, Odlanier Solis or Alexander Povetkin, Arreola will struggle.
Arreola doesn’t have the hand speed or the ring movement to beat the more quality heavyweights in the division and needs to be in the best possible condition to make up for his deficits. Klitschko really exposed Arreola’s lack of skills, especially his slow hand speed and his inability to cut off the ring. Arreola can’t do much about his hand speed problem but he can learn how to cut off the ring better.
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