by Cliff Rold

It wasn’t pretty but had enough pockets of bar room slugging towards the end to recapture a crowd it seemed to lose in the middle of Friday’s twelve rounds at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California as 29-year old Heavyweight Chris Arreola (29-2, 25 KO) of Escondido, California defeated 32-year old Manuel Quezada (29-6, 18 KO) of Wasco, California by unanimous decision.  Quezada came off the floor three times to finish the affair.

Arreola, at 256, came in almost six pounds heavier than for his last fight, a loss to former Cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek.  Quezada came in at 228, only two pounds higher than his last affair.    

Both men began the bout behind their jabs, Quezada slapping his through first.  One Arreola right missed, another landed, over the top in the first minute and both men dug some sluggish hooks to the body.  A Quezada counter right landed to the face of Arreola near the minute mark and the underdog boxed in relaxed fashion while covering up and blocking the Arreola uppercut. 

Playing the aggressor for the first minute, Quezada came forward with his jab while Arreola looked for slots to counter.  A flurry of aggression backed Quezada off but Quezada returned to moving his hands and Arreola shook his head as if frustrated.  With Arreola firing slow and often off balance, Quezada was blocking far more than Arreola was landing.

The same could not be said in an up tempo third round.  Keeping Quezada on the ropes for lengthy stretches, Arreola found a home for his left hook and right hand, knocking his man off balance in the final twenty second.  Quezada responded with blows of his own but they lacked any real pop.

The aggressive Arreola continued to land the harder blows in rounds four and five but Quezada remained live, nailing Arreola with a succession of blows to close the latter frame.  Quezada’s activity showed success again in the sixth, a pair of right hands working through Arreola’s guard after Arreola had landed a left to the body.  By the end of the sixth, Quezada had drawn blood from the nose of Arreola and Arreola’s eyes appeared to show signs of swelling.

A spatter of boos which had broken out in the sixth recurred in the seventh as the turgid action continued.  Both men were able to land singular shots but fatigue was limiting the output of both.  The steady flow of the bout, Arreola thudding home and Quezada landing in touch flurry, carried on until towards the last minute of the ninth.  Opening up, Arreola landed a pair of jabs, an uppercut, momentum building as he came forward.  Two rights to the head, a left hook, another right, and finally a left uppercut sent Quezada to his knees.

Quezada rose at the count of eight, nodding his okay to continue.  Arreola sledged forward, a triple left hook dropping Quezada for the second time.  Again rising from his knees at eight, Quezada punched back in survival mode before covering up to make it to the bell.

Quezada bravely let loose a three punch combination early in the tenth and added a pair of flush rights before a minute passed.  Quezada kept landing the right for most of three minutes, backing Arreola up in spots.  Having been on the deck twice the round before, it was Quezada surprising with his best round of the fight.

Quezada appeared on his way to easily capturing the eleventh as well but gassed late and Arreola rallied, first bumping Quezada backwards to the ropes and lacing him with a right and then slamming power shots into the bell to close the round’s scoring gap. 

With the crowd fully back into the affair, Quezada mustered only a spattering of offense as Arreola fired with both hands, demanding a strong finish.  A right dropped Quezada in the final minute and Quezada tied up after beating the count as he sought to last the distance.  He made it, perhaps a moral victory, while Arreola would leave with lopsided scores of 117-108 and 118-107 twice.

Arreola was honest in his assessment of the evening, rating his performance a C- and claimed to have hurt both his hands at various points.  Arreola entered the fight rated #12 by the WBA, #10 by the WBC, and #9 by the WBO.

The referee was Jerry Cantu.

Fans of professional boxing between fighters in peak condition got their fill before the main event in an entertaining eight-round Welterweight scrap.  26-year old Josesito Lopez (27-3, 15 KO), 143 ¾, of Riverside, California, would win the rugged affair, benefited late on the scorecards when 25-year old Marvin Cordova Jr. (21-2-1, 11 KO), 144, of Las Vegas, Nevada lost a point in the eighth for a low blow.  The point was not ultimately the decider in the affair as Lopez would win by scores of 78-73 twice and 77-74.  It was Lopez’s fifth straight win while Cordova dropped his second bout in his last three.  The referee was Pat Russell.

The card was broadcast in the U.S. on basic cable outlet ESPN2 as part of its Friday Night Fights series, promoted by Goosen Tutor.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com