Arreola's Trainer: Chris Can't Afford To Lose To Quezada

By Rick Reeno

Over the last year, it's been a tough road for trainer Henry Ramirez. The star pupil of his stable, heavyweight Chris Arreola (28-2, 25 KOs), has lost two out of his last three fights. He returns on August 13 against another Mexican heavyweight from California, Manny Quezada (29-5, 18 KOs). 

The fight headlines a televised event from the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, Calif. The television surroundings are a simple reminder that his career will be at stake that night. For the last few years Arreola has enjoyed the comfort of fighting on HBO. The fight with Quezada will be televised by ESPN2.

Ramirez tells BoxingScene.com that Arreola's future will certainly be on the line. A loss would be a serious setback for Arreola's career.

"This is a fight where, to be honest, both guys have their backs against the wall. Both are coming off losses. Two Mexican heavyweights, but they are a little bit different because Chris has been at that world class level. This is Manny's big opportunity. This fight has great consequences to it, huge consequences," Ramirez told BoxingScene.com.
In Arreola's last fight, in April, he lost a twelve round unanimous decision to Tomasz Adamek. It was one of the best heavyweight fights in the last few years. Arreola was holding his own until he suffered a hand injury in the second-half of the fight. Coming into that fight, everything appeared to be good on the outside, but they weren't going so well on the inside.

Ramirez is the first to admit, Arreola did not take his training camp for Adamek as seriously as he should have. Some people find that hard to believe. Arreola weighed 250-pounds for the fight; his lowest weight in nearly two years and thirteen-pounds lower than his December fight with Brian Minto. The weight loss was a simple disguise to the actual situation transpiring behind the scenes.

"He could have been 235 or 240 easily for that fight....if he was fully committed, without a doubt. Tomasz Adamek won the fight but that wasn't Chris Arreola in the ring that night. That was only 50% of him. To be honest, it was his lack of putting the sport first. His hand wasn't what was wrong. The hand was something that happened during the fight that you can't control. There are a lot of things that you can control as far as the preparation," Ramirez said.

This is not the first time, or the second time, that Arreola displayed a lack of dedication during a training camp. Ramirez and promoter Dan Goossen are finished making speeches. They are leaving the "dedication" part in the hands of Arreola. Either he wants to get back to the world class level, or he doesn't.

"Ultimately he has to make the sacrifices. We can say what we want. We can do what we want, but he has to make the major sacrifices and put the sport first. And this is the first step in getting back on the major networks. He's already in training. He's been in there for a few weeks. This is a very important fight," Ramirez said.