By Dan Ambrose: Heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (28-2, 25 KO’s) is badly in need of a win right about now after losing two of his last three fights. On Friday, Arreola will be facing Manuel Quezada (29-5, 18 KO’s) in a fight that Arreola should win if he’s in decent enough shape. With Arreola, though, you can never be too sure what kind of shape he’s going to be coming in for his bouts.
Despite having loads of potential, Arreola has picked up the habit of putting on massive amounts of weight and then trying to melt off all the weight during training camps. The results aren’t always what you would hope, as Arreola has looked soft in many of his recent fights in the past year. Even when challenging for the title last year against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitshko, Arreola had the look of someone that had put on a lot of weight and had tried to take it off too quickly.
It probably wouldn’t have matter whether Arreola came in the best shape of his life for that bout, because Vitali just appeared to be the superior all around fighter. However, Arreola has to dedicate himself to his training if he wants to beat the better fighters in the division. In his last fight, Arreola was defeated by Tomasz Adamek by a 12 round decision.
Arreola now really needs to beat Quezada this Friday or else Arreola could find himself out of the top 15. This should be a fight that Arreola can win if he’s ready physically. Quezada doesn’t have the same kind of ability to get around the ring that Adamek had, so Arreola won’t have to chase after him like he did with Adamek in his last fight.
But Arreola is going to have to make the best of his opportunities if he can get Quezada in trouble. Arreola had Adamek hurt on several occasions in his last fight, but was unable to put him away. Arreola needs to show a sense of urgency if he can get Quezada in trouble.
If Arreola loses this fight, it’s going to be a crushing blow for his career. Sure, Arreola is still young enough to come back if beaten by Quezada, but he would have a long haul to go to get back where he once was at the top of the division rankings.
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