by David P. Greisman
Chris Arreola doesn’t look like a heavyweight contender.
Normally when a sentence like that leads off a story, it is followed by an exploration of how an unlikely hero has been able to succeed despite his appearance, defying expectations and earning a chance to become a champion.
That isn’t what’s going to happen here. That’s because the reason Chris Arreola doesn’t look like a heavyweight contender is because he isn’t one.
The fact that Arreola has twice been able to fight for a world title doesn’t change this reality. Nor will it change even if Arreola goes on, as presumed, to challenge Deontay Wilder for his heavyweight belt later this year.
He’s nevertheless been able to get these shots, headline boxing broadcasts, make millions of dollars and remain viable nearly six years after his first failure for a variety of reasons.
There was his nationality. He was an American coming up in an era when Ukrainian great Wladimir Klitschko was beginning his dominant reign and when Wladimir’s older brother, Vitali, was getting ready to come out of retirement. The Klitschkos didn’t quite excite boxing fans in the United States, where the networks would soon spotlight them less and less.
There was his personality. He was a plainspoken, outgoing, out-of-shape, beer-drinking brawler. He made for a good interview. Arreola made HBO, which had long latched itself to a series of overhyped American heavyweights, want to spotlight him as the best next choice to stand in and crack away at Wladimir Klitschko’s perceived china chin.
There was his style. He knew little except for coming forward and punching, ate shots in order to deliver them, and wouldn’t quit no matter how much he had to throw and how much he had to take.
And then there was this: Arreola was better connected than he was respected. One of the biggest reasons Arreola has received so much isn’t just because of what we’ve seen, but also due to what goes on behind the scenes. It’s helped Arreola tremendously that he’s long been signed with influential adviser Al Haymon.
Haymon’s sway helped get Andre Berto overpaid and overpushed on HBO in those years, back when the network wanted him to be the next welterweight star who could challenge Floyd Mayweather Jr. Berto wasn’t.
And HBO bought Arreola as something more than a fun yet limited fighter who could give the Klitschkos trouble. Arreola wasn’t.
We saw that in September 2009, when Arreola did little but plod forward and receive a beating from Vitali Klitschko for 10 rounds. That was the first of his title shots. The second time came last year, in a rematch with Bermane Stiverne that ended with Arreola getting stopped in the sixth.
If he faces Wilder before the end of 2015, then that will be Arreola’s third time challenging for a belt. It will be his last.
And none will truly have been earned.
That’s not wholly an indictment of Arreola. Countless boxers get to challenge for titles despite having done little to receive the opportunity. That is what happens when there are so many major sanctioning bodies bestowing belts — four — and when each of them allows its respective champion to make voluntary defenses against anyone ranked within its top 15. Given how often the man ranked No. 1 has beaten few of note to move into that position, those below him typically (though not always) have accomplished even less.
Arreola was actually ranked No. 1 by the World Boxing Council when he fought Klitschko, moved into that slot after its previous holder, Juan Carlos Gomez, lost to Klitschko earlier that year.
Arreola was also ranked No. 2 (and Stiverne No. 1) when they met in their 2014 rematch for the belt left vacant after Vitali Klitschko retired once again.
Wilder beat Stiverne earlier this year to win the WBC belt. Arreola’s presently ranked all the way down at No. 11. That shouldn’t change too much after his fight this Saturday against Fred Kassi on the undercard of a “Premier Boxing Champions” broadcast on CBS featuring junior featherweight titleholder Carl Frampton against Alejandro Gonzalez. Kassi is a 35-year-old who is 18-3 with 10 KOs, has done far less than Arreola, is not ranked at all within the WBC’s top 40 and is coming off a knockout loss to Amir Mansour, who is presently at No. 31.
But Arreola need not be maneuvered through the ratings. That’s not necessary when Wilder is also with Haymon. Wilder is scheduled to fight again on Sept. 26. There are rumors that his opponent — for his last voluntary defense before he is to face mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin — will be Arreola.
“If I don’t win, there is no title shot,” Arreola said on a July 9 media conference call. “You’re only as good as your last win. That’s the way I feel. All this talk is just talk. It doesn’t mean nothing until I win this fight. Then we can really talk about it. First things first is the 18th. Kassi is a good fighter, and when I beat him, I want to beat him in a fashion that people want to see me fight Wilder, not just give it to me. I want to deserve that title fight. I want people to want to see that fight. That’s my main goal of this fight, is showcasing my skills and showing everybody that I deserve another title shot.”
A win over Kassi wouldn’t prove anything about Arreola that wasn’t already known. The best it could do is show that Arreola is in better condition than he was in March, when he got dragged into an unexpectedly competitive fight against an opponent named Curtis Harper, a relatively inexperienced and similarly rotund, limited and gritty opponent. Arreola was able to leave with an eight-round decision.
Arreola appeared to hurt his arm early in the bout, but he also wasn’t helped by the fact that he came in at 262.25 pounds, layers of flab on his 6-foot-3 frame and just three-quarters of a pound lighter than the heaviest he had ever been in the ring.
That is something that has long plagued Arreola. Or rather, it has something that Arreola has long done to himself.
When he first fought on an HBO pay-per-view underneath Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Carlos Baldomir in late 2006, Arreola came in at a relatively trim 229 pounds. That is the lightest he’s ever been as a pro, and it was 12 pounds lighter than he’d been in a fight less than three months before. He soon went into the 230s, then the 240s, dropping briefly to 239 for a June 2008 win over Chazz Witherspoon, only to jump way up to more than 258 pounds that September for a stay-busy win over Israel Garcia. He remained in the 250s for fights afterward, dropping to 251 when he fought Klitschko.
Training camp can be physically grueling and psychologically trying. For those fortunate not to have to fit sparring and roadwork in while also working day jobs and taking care family responsibilities, life becomes little beyond the sessions in the ring, on the bag, and with whatever strength and conditioning drills have been prescribed. Everything else is down time.
The best fighters throw themselves into both. It’s those who get restless and undisciplined that sabotage themselves.
“Sometimes I don’t think he gives us the best chance to win,” Arreola’s trainer, Henry Ramirez, said during the build-up to the Klitschko fight. “Sometimes he comes in a little too far out of shape.”
“Michael Phelps smokes weed. Why can’t I drink a beer?” Arreola said in the weeks before that fight. “That guy’s still setting records. Why can’t I have a beer? … It’s a problem, but at the same time it’s not. I work hard. I’m going to play hard.”
But there was a marked difference between a fighter like Arreola who refused to dedicate himself fully and someone like Klitschko who always sought to be in peak condition.
“These are 365-day-a-year guys,” HBO blow-by-blow announcer Jim Lampley said of the Klitschko brothers following the fight. “Somebody who thinks they can take 10 days off, have a party, drink and then come back to the gym and be on the same page is not going to beat a Klitschko.”
Arreola returned barely two months after the loss to face Brian Minto on HBO. He weighed 12 pounds heavier than he had against Klitschko, coming in at 263. Arreola won, and four and a half months later, in a more notable fight against Tomasz Adamek, Arreola was back down to about 250.
He had rationalized this. He was winning against lower-tier foes even when he was heavy. Why work hard to lose the weight when he was going to have little trouble taking them out?
His team let him get away with it. He’d gain more weight after, and the bad habits stuck when he most needed to be in good shape.
He lost to Adamek, then turned the blame in the right direction.
“I really shot myself in the foot. You know, I cut some corners. Actually, I cut a lot of corners,” he said on a media conference call months after the Adamek loss, prior to a bout with Manuel Quezada. Later on in the call, he added: “The hard part for me is when it comes late at night after I get home from a hard day at the gym, there’s no point in me working out if I'm going to go home and then have a big-ass burger.”
He came in even heavier than he had for Adamek, at 256 pounds. He beat Quezada by decision, took a handful of months off, and then had an active 2011. The weight began to come off, from about 250 in January to 234 and 236 for a pair of fights in May, staying at that weight in July. Then the pounds began to be added back on. He was about 240 in November, then 245 in early 2014, then up to 247 for his first fight with Stiverne, which Stiverne won by a wide decision. He was down 239 for the rematch, then nearly two-dozen pounds heavier for Harper.
And through it all, his best win came way back in 2009 against former title challenger Jameel McCline, who at the time was about one year removed from a three-fight losing streak. The quality on Arreola’s résumé drops pretty quickly from there. Arreola topped Witherspoon in 2008 and took out Seth Mitchell in 2013. Neither of those men ever came close to belonging in contention.
Somehow Arreola remains there, despite what he hasn’t done in the ring and doesn’t do during and between training camps.
He still says that his weight doesn’t reflect his conditioning, that he can be between 242 and 245 pounds and still go 10 rounds and throw between 80 and 100 punches per round. He said he plans to be around 247 or 248 pounds against Kassi.
Fans will worship a fighter who gives his all in the ring. But they will quickly grow weary of one who doesn’t give his all in camp and therefore doesn’t give himself the best chance once the bell rings.
Unless Arreola changes, the next chance should be his last. Deontay Wilder, however inexperienced, should seek to to use his considerable advantages in height, speed and athleticism to keep Arreola at bay. Arreola can only hope for Wilder to make mistakes. Wilder is no Klitschko. But Arreola has never truly been a contender, just someone good enough to beat those who don’t belong.
Every time Arreola has stepped up previously, he’s lost. And after every disappointing performance, he’s talked about how he needs to be more disciplined.
That’ll have to finally become reality should he go on to face Wilder. Otherwise this third and final undeserved title shot will once again end with Arreola getting, well, what he deserved.
The 10 Count will return soon.
“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com