By Jason Kim: Heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (33-2, 28 KO’s), ranked #2 WBC, #4 IBF, #5 WBO, #10 WBA, continues his forward progress towards another title shot when he gets back in the ring next month against an opponent to be named later on September 15th in Ontario, California.

Arreola, 30, missed his big chance of picking up an easy heavyweight title when WBA heavyweight champion David Haye was recently beaten by IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko on July 2nd. Arreola would have likely beaten a limited fighter like Haye to pick up the WBA belt.

Arreola then could have used the World Boxing Association belt as leverage for a big money fight against Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko. Now, Arreola’s chances of picking up a title are pretty much zero until one of the Klitschkos retire. But at least Arreola can continue to work for title shots so that he can at least get an occasional nice payday, if not a title.

Arreola looked sluggish in his last fight against Friday Ahunanya on July 9th, winning by a 10 round unanimous decision. Arreola wasn’t happy with his performance in that fight because Ahunanya was able to land a lot of head shots against Arreola while he was coming forward trying to land his power shots. Defense has never been Arreola’s specialty, so it’s not really surprising that a limited B level fighter like Ahunanya was able to expose Arreola’s lack of defensive ability.

That was really expected because Ahunanya has a good chin and there was no way he was going to fold early like a lot of Arreola’s recent opponents have been doing. The thing is if you can stay in a fight with Arreola past the 6th round, you’re going to have plenty of opportunities to land your shots. Arreola really needs to work on his defensive badly, because he’s so easy to hit. That’s one of the reasons why Arreola will likely have problems in the future even after one of the Klitschkos retire. Arreola can be outboxed.