By Lyle Fitzsimmons
I’m in a quandary as it relates to Chris Arreola, the Californian who upped his record to 26-0 and cemented his status – in the eyes of Max Kellerman, at least – as the No. 1 American heavyweight with his topsy-turvy stoppage of Travis Walker on HBO Saturday night.
As a guy, I like him.
I interviewed him on the phone last week, and, though my expectations going in were pretty low, I happily found him to be not only cooperative, but also charming, humble and funny during a 20-minute chat that covered movies, basketball and, oh yeah… boxing.
And because we share a March 5 birthday, I figure I have to pull for him at least a little bit.
Problem is, as a fighter, I’m not at all impressed.
Oh sure, I know he beat Walker.
And yes, I’m aware of the 14-fight stoppage streak and the multiple top-10 alphabet rankings.
I just don’t think he’s all that good.
And the more I had it drilled into my head – simply because he got off the floor to beat Walker – that he’s automatically become the next big threat to the Brothers Klitschko, the more ridiculous it sounded.
Maybe it was just me, but as he droned through an in-ring soliloquy following the close of the Paul Williams-Verno Phillips main event at 154 pounds, it seemed the literary name-dropping Kellerman was as much trying to convince himself of Arreola’s worthiness as he was actually sure of it.
I mean, c’mon people, just take a look at what he’s really, errr… accomplished.
Aside from a third-round mugging of mildly talented Chazz Witherspoon a few months back in Memphis, Arreola’s proven little more in the ring than a ravenous taste for the tattoo needle and a terrific aversion to anything approaching serious abdominal work.
And on a world stage, he’s barely more qualified than the tough-guy bouncer at the local bar.
A guy as limited as Walker made him look pretty silly at the outset, landing repeatedly with jabs and straight right hands and scoring the aforementioned knockdown before his own balky chin was exposed, just as it had been in a one-round KO loss to – ugh! – TJ Wilson only 13 months earlier.
And no other names leap off the “Nightmare’s” resume as true barometers, unless of course you regard notables like Cliff Couser (nine KO losses), Sedrick Fields (22-37-2 in 61 fights) and Curtis Taylor (one win since 2005) as sufficient evidence to warrant a legitimate title try.
As for me – while I know I’m in the minority compared to Arreola fans who root for crashes at NASCAR races and are more interested in hockey fights than hockey goals – I’d like a little more reason to believe that a match with either Klitschko wouldn’t conclude with him on his back inside of one round.
So toward that end, here are a few easy pre-title shot suggestions.
Instead of scouring the map for meaningless, record-swelling cannon fodder, the powers-that-be at Goossen-Tutor really need look no further than their own client list for three fights to go a long way toward identifying Arreola as contender or pretender.
Reigning USBA champion Eddie Chambers has beaten better competition and could test the 250-plus pounder with his slickness, while two-loss stablemate Tony Thompson has the size and durability to extend him into late-round situations that his virgin lungs have so far only cringed at.
Top it off with multi-division veteran James Toney – arguably still among the top half-dozen in the division – and you’ve got yourself a legitimate proving ground that’d either relegate Arreola to has-been status or deem him truly worthy of wearing a championship belt.
Of course, reality being what it is… I don’t expect any of these fights to actually happen.
Rather, if they can get immediate deals done in any direction, I’d anticipate seeing Arreola in a ring with either of the Klitschkos – or even WBA champ Nikolay Valuev – sometime in 2009.
Seems a one-way to heavyweight anonymity for a guy who told me he hoped to one day be remembered as a ring legend, but I suppose a few more zeroes in the checkbook will buy a lot of aspirin.
And the door-side enforcer’s stool at Sky Dive Lounge will still be there.
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Truth told, any talk of Arreola deflects from the star of the night’s broadcast – Williams.
With an eight-round snuff-out of Phillips – who’d won the IBF title at 154 eight months ago in St. Louis – the freak of nature from South Carolina established himself as a throwback to the era of simultaneous multi-division champions and an imminent threat to at least two big-money incumbents.
Though welterweight king Antonio Margarito has curiously chosen a 37-year-old Shane Mosley and an already conquered Miguel Cotto as his next two foes, a palpable demand still exists for the former “most avoided man in boxing” to again face the man to whom he unanimously lost that title in July 2007.
But should the “Tijuana Tornado” continue to fill his 147-pound dance card with names other than Williams, perhaps the 6-foot-1 “Punisher” can head another division north to pursue his next most lucrative quarry – recently devalued middleweight powerhouse Kelly Pavlik.
While it’s been reported a Pavlik-Williams get-together was snuffed out earlier this year due to a personality conflict between the two camps, it seems the subsequent changes in landscape have made the match more feasible in the ring and worthwhile enough fiscally to let bygones be bygones.
In fact, I can think of 4 million or so reasons for a change of heart.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my 30 years in this business,” promoter Dan Goossen said. “Fighters leaving millions of dollars on the table not to fight Paul Williams. As well as being the most feared fighter, he is the elite of the elite. No one else compares to him.”
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One guy Williams probably doesn’t have to worry about?
Oscar De La Hoya.
Regardless of his fate against Manny Pacquiao this Saturday night – and it says here that he wins by a 10th-round stoppage – it’s far more likely the “Golden Boy” continues to scour the lower weights for future opponents rather than dealing with someone of the Williams or Margarito ilk.
Junior welterweight boss Ricky Hatton appears to be next in line at the Oscar cash machine, based on comments attributed to De La Hoya Monday night on Buzzle.com.
“A fight between me and Hatton has to happen in London,” he said. “I can have a Vegas fight with anyone, but if I'm going to fight Hatton it has to be in his backyard. At this stage I need special events to motivate me. London, in front of that vast Hatton crowd, would definitely motivate me.”
As for what comes after Hatton, I’ve got one immediate guess.
Be afraid, Vic Darchinyan… be very afraid.
Lyle Fitzsimmons is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him via e-mail at fitzbitz@msn.com.
