Chris Arreola: I Looked Like Sh*t, as Bad as David Haye

Published Sun Jul 10, 2011, 9:14 AM

On Saturday night, a much slimmer, 30-year-old Chris Arreola (33-2, 28 knockouts) returned to Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, and scored his fifth straight win even as he failed to earn his fourth knockout. He won a unanimous decision over 39-year-old Friday Ahunanya (24-8-3, 13 KOs) over 10 rounds at the Adrian Phillips Ballroom. Judges Hilton Whitaker and Al Bennett scored it 99-91, and Don Givens had it 100--90 for Arreola. It was Arreola's fifth fight in the past 11 months, as well as his fourth ring appearance of the year.

BoxingScene.com was able to get Arreola's post-fight analysis on his performance, his reaction to a possible fight with unified champion Wladimir Klitschko, and he even took a few digs at British heavyweight David Haye.

On the overall performance:

Chris Arreola: "I should have knocked him out. No offense to him. He has a solid chin. But I landed some good combinations. It shouldn't have lasted that long. I'm very disappointed in myself. I looked like sh*t. I looked as bad as David Haye did."

Of the third round where he was rocked a bit.

"He landed a clean combination. That woke me up. But it's boxing. You're supposed to get caught."

Was it good to get in some rounds?

"I didn't want the rounds. I get rounds in sparring. I don't need no rounds. I didn't come out here to fight for 10 rounds. I should have gotten rid of him earlier."

On his strategy.

"I was trying to go body, head, body, head. But in the middle rounds, I sort of lost my game plan."

On fighting Wladimir Klitschko

"Of course I would like a shot at Wladimir, but not off of a performance like tonight, man. Today was one of the f*cking sh*ttiest performances of this year, man. I'm very disappointed, but it's my fault. I'm going to be the first one to take the full brunt of this criticism. It shouldn't have lasted 10 rounds. Once I started moving him with my punches, I should have taken him out."

Would he like to fight Wladimir Klitschko next?

"You know what, it's up to [promoter] Dan [Goossen] and [adviser] Al Haymon, but truthfully, I would like to fight again in another six or seven weeks. I'm very, very, very disappointed. And it's my fault. It's not Friday's fault, because Friday came to fight. Wladimir, he could blame his fight on David Haye, because David Haye said that he had injured his toe. But you should see my toes. My toes are all f**ked up."