By Luis Sandoval

Heavyweight Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola spent most of 2011 rebuilding himself and his career by staying active and staying in good physical shape. Arreola fought a total of five times last year as he decided to pay his dues and prove that he was very serious about putting his career back on track.

Arreola will fight Eric Molina on the undercard of the Showtime double header between Tavoris Cloud vs. Gabriel Campillo and Paul Williams vs. Nobuhiro Ishida but his fight won’t be part of the main televised portion. Instead his fight will be shown on a subsidiary channel in Showtime Extreme.

On the most recent edition of BoxingScene’s official audio show The Boxing Lab, Arreola said he feels he put in the work to earn back his spot amongst the top guys and the time has come for him to return to the main stage.

“The past year people see me out and ask ‘when are you going to fight?’ and I’m like ‘I fought five times last year!’. Like ‘really, I didn’t see it on TV’. I hate that. It bugs you. They think that I retired and lost weight and I’m like f**k no, I’ve been fighting!” expressed Arreola.

“I love Paul Williams. I love being on his undercards. Tavoris Cloud is a great fighter, I just feel a little snubbed but that’s alright. It’s okay. Now it’s my job to go in there and prove that I belong on the main Showtime card from now on. I’m not an opening bout guy. I’m not a swing bout, that’s not who I am”.

The good news for Arreola is that according to Tomasz Adamek, HBO is very interested in a rematch between both heavyweights so a big fight could very well be on the horizon. A rematch with Adamek is a fight Arreola has expressed great interest in. Chris was asked if he felt he needed to put on an impressive performance Saturday night to get his point across.

“Every fight is like that. Every fight I got to make a point. I got to prove myself. Every single fight. It doesn’t matter who it is or what network. I got to show people I’m still a heavyweight to be reckoned with. That I’m going to be a world heavyweight champion. I need them to believe in me and what better way than to showcase myself” said Arreola. 

You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter @Truewest007. You can also tune in to The Boxing Lab, Boxingscene’s official audio show every Tuesday from 6-8PM PST with hosts Ernest Gabion, Luis Sandoval, and Ryan Burton.

Tags: Chris Arreola