by David P. Greisman
Chris Arreola’s weight has long been a topic of conversation. The numbers on the scale have rollercoastered, ranging between as light as 229 pounds and as heavy 263. More often than not, he’s in the middle or heavier.
He was particularly heavy this past March, when he didn’t look very good in an eight-round slugfest win over Curtis Harper. Arreola weighed 262.25 pounds for that fight, just shy of his career high.
“My main goal, first and foremost, is being in boxing shape,” Arreola said ahead of his July 18 bout against Fred Kassi, which will be in El Paso, Texas, on the CBS undercard to the fight between 122-pound titleholder Carl Frampton and Alejandro Gonzalez.
“My weight, to me, doesn’t reflect my conditioning. The main thing is I want to be in great boxing weight, in order for me to go the full 10 rounds and also for me to throw 80 to 100 punches per round,” he said. “That is my main goal, is to showcase my boxing skills. If I had an optimal weight, it’d be in the mid ‘40s, like ’44, ’45, at the lowest maybe ’42. For this fight I think I’ll come in in the high ‘40s, ‘47, ‘48.”
It’s been about four months since the Harper fight. Arreola would need to have not gained any weight since then, and would need to then have lost about 15 pounds in four months. While that isn’t much for a typical boxer, Arreola’s track record is different.
Then again, he also recognizes that this could be his last opportunity to work toward another title shot. He lost to then-titleholder Vitali Klitschko in 2009, dropped a majority decision to contender Tomasz Adamek in 2010, lost a decision to Bermane Stiverne in 2013, and then was stopped in a rematch with Stiverne in 2014 in a bout for a vacant title.
Stiverne has since lost that belt to Deontay Wilder, who like Arreola is signed with adviser Al Haymon.
Arreola, 34, 36-4 with 31 KOs. Kassi, 35, is 18-3 with 10 KOs and is coming off a seventh-round knockout loss last November to Amir Mansour.
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