By Jake Donovan

Stop your whining, already.

A proposed fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Chris Arreola was barely in the negotiating stage when fans started bitching.

Arreola’s not ready, why would he want to cash out so soon? Why is he even getting a shot in the first place?

Why won’t Klitschko further unify the alphabet titles and clean up the heavyweight division?

Why is HBO forcing this fight on us?

Here’s one question to be asked of those same boxing fans complaining:

Why can’t you sit back and appreciate a potentially fun heavyweight fight, however short or long it lasts?

The next time Wladimir Klitschko is involved in an entertaining fight will be his first in quite some time. The top rated heavyweight in the world is doing his part to further separate himself from the rest of the pack, easily cruising in all three of his ring appearances in 2008.

Some will argue that none of the three fights (W12 Sultan Ibragimov, KO11 Tony Thompson TKO7 Hasim Rahman) had any business being close, and that it’s high time that the hulking Ukrainian begins to face real competition.

Of course, such claims come after the fact, as most find it easier to perform an autopsy than to predict the future. It’s easy to ignore the fact that Ibragimov was a top five heavyweight heading into their February unification match, or that most respectable ratings had Thompson somewhere in their top ten (even if at the very bottom of it). Alexander Povetkin would’ve been the third, had it not been for his suffering an unfortunate injury during training camp.

The downside to both fights (all three, if we are to already dismiss Povetkin’s chances) was that neither fighter stood much of a chance of upending the closest thing we have to a definitive heavyweight ruler. This is where the beef resides with the thoughts of his next facing Arreola, who’s being sold as the next big thing although his recent conditioning (or lack thereof) and last in-ring performance suggests the next big bust.

With his mandatory defense against Povetkin not due until September 2009, fans were hoping that a more substantive heavyweight collision would take between now and then.

But the question is, against whom?

With all four or five of the world’s top heavyweights residing in the same corner of the world, one would think it’d be easy enough to throw one giant Eastern Bloc party. The last man standing is the next lineal heavyweight champion, even if the alphabet boys step and strip a titlist or two.

Or so goes the logic on this side of the Atlantic, anyway.

The truth is that the top two of that list – Wladimir and big brother Vitali - will never fight each other. Any clarification will have to come with cleaning house from at least three through five.

Ruslan Chagaev is generally regarded as the world’s third best heavyweight – when he’s healthy. One sanctioning body labels him a champion in recess, though his reign greater suggests a champion in recession. The undefeated southpaw has only one defense to his credit since dethroning Nikolay Valuev in April 2007, a lethargic points win over Matt Skelton nearly one year ago.

The transplanted Uzbekistan is set to return in February against undefeated but unheralded, in fact completely unknown, Carl David Drumond of Costa Rica. A win in that fight leads to a rematch with Valuev, whose 2008 campaign began a hell of a lot better than it ended.

Ten months after scoring a virtual shutout over former titlist Serguei Lyakhovich, Valuev showed up fat and disinterested in what was assumed to be a walk in the park against nearly shot former lineal cruiserweight and heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield. Twelve rounds later, it turned out to be a fight that oh so many got very, very wrong – at least until the official scorecards were read, allowing the Russian Giant to land on the winning end of the year’s most controversial decision.

Whatever interest there was in a Wlad-Valuev showdown all but went out the window. Sure, the fight would still be a huge sell in Germany, and Wlad would conceivably add one more title to his collection. But surely a win over Valuev right now wouldn’t cement Klitschko’s status as THE heavyweight king any more so than is already the case.

Talks of Wlad fighting either Chagaev or Valuev is a moot point anyway. The two are destined to rematch up sometime in 2009, assuming both sides can stay healthy and keep winning, obviously not a given these days.

Even if he were to get both in the ring, it would be two more fights that would prove to be as entertaining as any of his past few endeavors. Whether fans want to admit it or not, that is the real issue here.

You don’t believe me? Think about this:

How many people were more pleased with his partially unifying the division against Ibragimov than they were disgusted with the twelve rounds of inaction that preceded the coronation? How much praise came out of his stoppage wins against Thompson or Rahman?

More so than closure atop the heavyweight division, what boxing needs is entertaining bouts.

That’s where Chris Arreola comes in, and in a big way.

For all of his flaws (and so long as he “forgets” to train for future fights, the list continues to grow), the 27-year old California banger is never in a boring fight. It’s been more than 18 months since the last time he’s seen the fourth round of a sanctioned fight, and well over three years since a reading of the final scorecards were necessary to determine a winner.

All that stands in the way of a 14-fight knockout streak is a technicality in his June ’08 one-sided slugfest with Chazz Witherspoon on HBO. It was the first time he appeared on the network, though the last time he showed up in respectable shape. His high volume of power punches and regular-Joe demeanor made him an instant favorite in boxing circles, even if the overall skill level left something to be desired.

The decision to enter his two subsequent fights with a Body By Cerveza physique didn’t quite sit as well with fans, though neither were remotely boring – or very long. Isidro Garcia and Travis Walker were both shown the exit inside of three rounds, though it was the Walker fight this past November (also on HBO) that showed some major chinks in his armor.

One question surrounding the massive Mexican-American was whether or not he could take a punch. We already knew he couldn’t block one, as defense has been a rumor for most of his fights since turning pro in 2003. Against Travis Walker, Arreola spent the first round sleepwalking and a brief moment of the second round in an unfamiliar position – on the canvas for the first time of his career.

Despite the rare knockdown, Arreola was hardly shaken, as evidenced by his dominating the rest of the fight, at least for as long as it lasted as he blasted out Walker in the very next round. Still, many believed what had taken place prior to the mid-round wake-up call is what we can expect of his career from here on out, at least against live opposition.

If that’s the case, then Klitschko should be able to get rid of Arreola, in early, easy and perhaps even highlight reel fashion.

If it’s not the case, and Arreola remembers to train for their potential Spring ’09 collision… who knows? Maybe the fight isn’t any more competitive. Or maybe it’s a matter of who lands the first big bomb – or whose chin gives in the quickest.

Though many consider Arreola’s chances of winning highly unlikely, even less likely is the chance of an entertainment letdown. Sure, it can be argued that so long as Povetkin is healthy and ready to fight much sooner than the September deadline, then he should get next crack at Wlad. But chances are that such a fight won’t go any further in re-introducting Klitschko to the highlight reel anytime soon.

Is it an intriguing matchup? Hell yeah. But rare is the occasion when intrigue and excitement turn out to be one and the same.

Not to mention the fact that, given the deadline (and Povetkin’s team agreed to it, however reluctant they might’ve been), the fight is always there whenever both sides are ready. More relevant for the right now is that Wlad needs to fight somebody that endears to the American public, at least if he still wants to collect massive paydays from cable giant HBO.

Ratings for the past several years have clearly indicated that fights against retreads won’t cut it, nor will matches whether neither fighter is based in or at least near the United States.

An optional defense against Arreola gives boxing the best of both worlds.

The network paying the bills gets a fight that stands a better chance of generating the type of ratings that warrants a congratulatory post-fight press release and office memo.

Boxing fans get a guaranteed shootout with a knockout potentially occurring at any given moment beginning with the very first punch thrown in the fight.

At the end of the night, the heavyweight division is left with a winner that fans will want to see again, or at least one more time.

So you tell me how any of that is a bad thing?
 
Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .