Chris Arreola on Andy Ruiz Jr fight: ‘Don’t blink’

By Boxing News - 04/07/2021 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Chris ‘The Nightmare’ Arreola is telling fans “don’t blink” when they watch him face former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Andy ‘Destroyer’ Ruiz Jr next month on May 1st on FOX Sports pay-per-view from Dignity Health Sports Park, in Carson, California.

Arreola (38-6-1, 33 KOs) expects a knockout either way in this fight when he takes on the 31-year-old Ruiz Jr in the headliner. Both heavyweights have been out of the ring for a considerable amount of time since 2019.

It’s worse for Ruiz, as he ballooned up to 310 lbs after Anthony Joshua dethroned him in their rematch in December 2019.

Ruiz let his weight get out of hand in overeating, and the thing, he was overweight, to begin with by slacking off in his training for these second fight against AJ.

Together with the help of new trainer Eddy Reynoso, Ruiz trimmed off the weight, and he’s now at 258 lbs, which is 10 lbs lighter than he weighed for his first fight with Joshua in June 2019 in New York.

Ruiz weighed 268 for that match, and he was in good enough shape to stop him in the seventh.  With three weeks to go before his fight with Arreola, it’s possible Ruiz could come into the fight at around 250 lbs.

It’ll be interesting to see if the lighter weight will improve Ruiz or hurt his performance.

Arreola motivated to beat Ruiz Jr.

“First of all, people who know me and watched me, I try not to be in a boring fight,” said Chris Arreola on Marcus Watson’s “Good Music Monday.

Image: Chris Arreola on Andy Ruiz Jr fight: 'Don't blink'

“I’m there to fight, I come to fight, and I come to leave it all in the ring because this is what I do. You seen Andy [Ruiz] win the heavyweight title.

“You seen him shock the world,” Arreola said of Ruiz Jr. “He’s motivated to knock my block off, but you know what? I’m motivated too. I want to win. Yeah, he may have been the first heavyweight champion, but I’m the best Mexican here.

“It’s more a battle of wills and a battle of attrition. And it’s going to be who can give on the bigger punishment.

“It’s going to be a fun fight for boxing fans, or for anyone that likes to see violence, come watch this fight,” Arreola said.

A victory here for Arreola would be massive because it would show that he still has a lot left in the tank at 40. Many boxing fans see Arreola as over-the-hill despite his fine performance in his last fight in 2019 against Adam Kownacki.

Arreola threw 1,125 punches in that fight, and there aren’t too many heavyweights that can do that.

Fans shouldn’t blink, says Arreola

“My fight is the main headliner, and my fight is the one that everyone needs to watch,” said Arreola about his battle against Ruiz Jr.

“Don’t blink. Someone can go to sleep that easy. We are going to be in there throwing bombs away.

Image: Chris Arreola on Andy Ruiz Jr fight: 'Don't blink'

“Personally, with my mindset, I say f*** it. Let’s do it. There’s no turning back. If you really believe in yourself, you have to believe because there are going to be people that don’t believe in you.

“There’s going to be a lot of people that talk s*** to you. There’s a lot of people on here talking s***, and that’s fine. That’s what they do. That’s alight; I’m going to be the one in the ring.

“They’re going to be watching me. You got to believe in yourself and do whatever it is your doing to do. It doesn’t happen without putting the work in.

“While someone else is sleeping and someone else is chilling, do something about it,” said Arreola.

If Arreola knocks out Ruiz, that would be ruinous for his career, as he’s trying to rebuild. Getting knocked out by Arreola would be a bitter pill for Ruiz to swallow, as he dumped his trainer Manny Robles recently, believing that Eddy Reynoso would be the magic person to turn his career around.

If Ruiz loses, he’ll discover the hard way that Reynoso is no different than any trainer. He’s just someone that got lucky when Canelo Alvarez joined his stable at an early age.

Basically, what Canelos knows is from fighting often, watching other fighters, and learning from his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Chris remembers Klitschko fight

“Stiverne was in shape against me,” said Arreola. “Why was he in shape for me? He was fat for Wilder and fat for some other guy, but for me, Stiverne was in shape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwZaD2mfu0s

“Stiverne was a talented guy, and it bothers me because people think he’s a bum. Vitali Klitschko had manpower. Once he hit me with a right hand, I honestly don’t know how I stood up.

“I felt like he honestly wanted to go through my f*** face, and that guy had grown a** manpower, smacking the s**** out of me,” said Arreola remembering his fight against Klitschko in 2009.

The 6’7″ Vitali Klitschko had too much size, ring IQ, and punching power for Arreola to get to him consistently to land.

That was the fight in which Arreola started crying afterward and swearing while being interviewed by HBO.

 

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