By Thomas Gerbasi

This could be all for naught. Chris Arreola could get blasted out in half a round by Adam Kownacki this Saturday in Brooklyn and still get more high-profile opportunities in the future.

That’s the beauty of being a heavyweight. Whether marketable or not, the big men of boxing always seem to find their way into major paydays and title fights long after their sell-by date.

Chris Arreola is marketable. He always has been. So here he is, at 38, three years removed from his third unsuccessful attempt at winning a world title, and two wins into a comeback that has led him into a FOX-televised main event.

But the storyline leading up to this weekend’s bout is that it’s win or go home for California’s “Nightmare.”

“If I lose this fight, I will retire, plain and simple,” said Arreola. “I love the sport of boxing and I want people to still remember me as a world heavyweight champion. I believe I still have the skills to do so.”

He’s had his shots, losing to Vitali Klitschko in 2009, Bermane Stiverne in 2014 and Deontay Wilder in 2016. It’s what people will now remember about Arreola, who was a breath of fresh air when he first burst on the world scene with wins over Chazz Witherspoon, Israel Garcia, Travis Walker and Jameel McCline in 2008-09.

That run, which lifted his record to 27-0, earned him a shot at Klitschko, and while most knew he wasn’t ready for the Ukrainian powerhouse, nearly 15,000 of his Southern California fans showed up to STAPLES Center to see him give it a go. Arreola was everyman, your buddy buying the beers, and the guy who had your back if those beers led to a 3am brawl. He wasn’t pretty in the ring, but he showed up to fight.

Tough wasn’t enough against Klitschko, who battered Arreola for ten rounds before trainer Henry Ramirez pulled his fighter out of the bout. It was a crushing loss, but Arreola had too much appeal to not get another crack at one of the 8,326 world titles out there.

So what if he wasn’t exactly a Spartan when it came to training or that he didn’t exactly dedicate his entire life to his craft. If he won a belt, becoming the first Mexican-American heavyweight champion, he would be a superstar, even if only for a moment.

But it never happened.

His best shot would be against Stiverne, who won a wide decision in their first fight in 2013, busting Arreola’s nose while scoring an early knockdown.

“Honestly, every punch that I got hit with was the most painful punch ever,” Arreola told me in 2014. “I could feel the bones in my nose grinding against each other. It was like a shooting pain that shot across my face. But inside my head, I had no quit in me. Even when I thought you know what, maybe this is the round to throw in the towel, my corner was on me and telling me, you know what, he’s just as tired as you are. You gotta keep going.”

That grit was a key part of Arreola’s appeal. He showed it against Klitschko and in that first fight with Stiverne. And he wore that as a badge of honor leading into the Stiverne rematch.

“I know I put a lot of doubt in his head,” Arreola said. “He couldn’t take me out and I was a wounded animal. I was hurt, I was done, but he couldn’t take me out. That does put a lot of doubt in someone’s head, just like Jake LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson.”

Stiverne didn’t show much doubt the second time around, as he stopped Arreola in six rounds. Remarkably, after a pedestrian win over Curtis Harper, a draw with Fred Kassi and a split decision over Travis Kauffman that was turned into a no decision after his second failed drug test for marijuana, he got a crack at Wilder in 2016 and was stopped in eight frames.

It was over, or so you would assume. But nothing’s ever over in boxing, is it?

Making his return in December 2018, Arreola stopped 20-10-4 Maurenzo Smith in six rounds, then took three rounds to halt 17-0-1 Jean Pierre Augustin in March. Now it’s Kownacki, a rising star fighting in his adopted hometown of Brooklyn. In other words, Arreola is the “name” for Kownacki’s record, the showcase bout at home that could send the Poland native into a title shot.

The Californian knows all of this. That doesn’t mean he accepts it.

“I'm nothing like the fighters he's fought,” Arreola said. “I'm not an opponent. I'm here to fight. He's going to have a tough time trying to put me out. A lot of people underestimate me, but you'll see on August 3 that I'm a heavyweight to be reckoned with.”

He may be, and that’s why this matchup is so intriguing. On paper, Arreola is the perfect opponent for Kownacki, a busy fighter with thudding power who won’t have to look for Arreola. And if Arreola can take his opponent’s power, he will still have difficulty keeping up into the late rounds if his past training habits have crept into the present. But with Joe Goossen now manning the corner, Arreola insists that he will be ready to go the distance if necessary.

“I needed someone like Joe to light a fire in me and to be right next to me and point out the mistakes that I am making,” said Arreola, who is ticking off all the right boxes in the lead up to the bout. The way he tells it, he’s in great shape, he’s not going to make the same mistakes he did in the past, and he knows this is his last shot. Only Saturday night will tell whether he’s telling the truth or selling a fight.

History says he’s selling a fight. Arreola’s history says he’s telling the truth, and he’s under no illusions about how his career stands at the moment.

“I'm not happy at all,” he said. “I started boxing when I was seven years old because I wanted to be a world champion. I remember seeing Julio Cesar Chavez. I remember meeting him and being in awe with this man and my dream was always to be a world champion. So if I'm not a world champion, I did nothing with my career.”

A win over Kownacki, and he may just keep his dream alive. Stranger things have happened, especially in the heavyweight division.