By Dan Ambrose: Heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (33-2, 28 KO’s) wasn’t happy with his lopsided 10 round unanimous decision over journeyman Friday Ahunanya (24-8-3, 13 KO’s) last Saturday night despite winning by the scores of 100-90, 99-91 and 99-91 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Arreola has been mentioned as a possible opponent for IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko for his next fight in December. However, after beating Ahunanya, Arreola expressed dissatisfaction with his performance and said he wants to get back in the ring in six weeks to fight yet another tune-up bout.

It’s unclear how many more tune-up fights the 30-year-old Arreola feels he needs before he’s feeling good enough to fight Klitschko. Arreola has already fought five tune-ups in a row after losing to Tomasz Adamek by a 12 round majority decision in April 2010. Fighting more tune-ups would seem to be a waste of time for Arreola, because he’s never going to be fast or explosive.

Last night, Arreola looked like he always looks, fighting kind of sloppy, showing poor hand speed and getting nailed by Ahunanya by most of the punches he threw. Arreola didn’t show good defensive ability against Ahunanya, but then again he never does. But what could be worrying Arreola is his lack of power.

He weighed 236 for the Ahunanya and the weight that Arreola has taken off in the past six months seems to have left him a lot weaker. His body might look better but he’s clearly lost a lot of power. To be sure, Arreola is more active now compared to before and is throwing more shots. However, his once huge power has largely disappeared and he still looks as sloppy as ever.

Arreola said after the fight: “Of course I would like a shot at Wladimir, but today was one of my crappiest performances of the year. I almost looked as bad as [David] Haye.”

I think Arreola is being too harsh on himself. He looked about the same as he did in his win over Manuel Quezada last year. Maybe Arreola thinks he looked bad in this fight compared to his last three fights, because h knocked all those guys out. But Ahunanya is a better fighter than the 2nd tier guys that Arreola has been fighting recently. I mean Ahunanya is 2nd tier as well, but he’s a step above the kinds of fighters that Arreola has been knocking out recently.

Arreola should take the fight with Wladimir if it’s offered to him. He’s not going to win anyway and it really doesn’t matter if he looked good or bad beating a 2nd tier fighter. He’s still going to lose, so what’s the point? Arreola needs to see the big picture and try and make the fight with Wladimir happen if it’s offered to him.