By Thomas Gerbasi
Chris Arreola won’t answer the phone.
Despite the yeoman-like efforts of Goossen Tutor publicist Marylyn Aceves over the last couple days (and if it’s a woman making the effort, is it yeowoman?), the heavyweight contender from Riverside, California is nowhere to be found.
Maybe he’s in the gym, but trainer Henry Ramirez seems to be AWOL as well, and a trip from New York to Southern California isn’t high on the priority list, especially with the temps slowly rising here.
So why the silence? I’d ask Arreola that myself but if we were talking, then I wouldn’t have to ask. So I’m left to speculate, and I really can’t find a good enough reason to avoid talking to the press on a fairly dead fight week that hasn’t been inundated with talk about the aborted Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao fight or the future plans of the two men jostling for control of the pound-for-pound rankings.
Could it be that he’s still smarting over his loss to Vitali Klitschko last September? I would hope not. Sure, he didn’t win, and he certainly didn’t show the talent that got him to a 27-0 pro record, but he kept moving forward and kept trying to win until the bout was stopped after the tenth round.
As for the tears that flowed from his eyes afterwards, there’s no shame in that, despite what the 15-year olds on the internet might say. I remember the late Vernon Forrest getting ridiculed for doing the same thing after his first championship fight with Raul Frank in 2000 was ruled a no contest. What those who criticize don’t realize are the sacrifices – both mental and physical – that go into the years preparing for that one moment when you have the chance to call yourself a champion. To see that opportunity go by the wayside can be crushing, especially if you feel you didn’t do what you could have. Maybe that’s what brought the tears from Arreola, that the true extent of his talent wasn’t on display that night at STAPLES Center in his Southern Cali backyard.
But that was nearly four months ago, and Arreola has surfaced in the public eye since then, most notably before his December 5th bout against Brian Minto. Few gave the undersized Minto a shot against Arreola, and when “The Nightmare” entered the ring at a career-high 263 pounds, the odds went even higher that he was going to get blasted out by the Californian. No doubt, Minto was game, but by the 2:40 mark of the fourth round, it was all over. Arreola was back on the winning track, had ended the year with a payday and some national television exposure, and it should have been the perfect segue into a big 2010 and a possible shot at one of the other heavyweight titleholders, Vitali’s brother Wladimir (IBF / WBO) or the shining light of the division, WBA champ David Haye.
Hence my interview request. Because if one thing is abundantly clear if you’re familiar with the aforementioned names or the rest of the top dogs in what was once the sport’s glamour division, it’s that heavyweight boxing is no longer the property of American heavyweights. And that doesn’t only go for what happens in the ring, it’s what’s happening in the newspapers and magazines and on the internet.
Here’s the landscape at the top of the heap:
Vitali Klitschko – Ukraine
Wladimir Klitschko – Ukraine
David Haye – England
Number one contender Alexander Povetkin – Russia
Sure, Americans John Ruiz, Eddie Chambers, and Ray Austin (how did this happen?) sit in prominent positions on the world stage, but can any one of that trio claim to have the charisma and / or crossover appeal to make fans here in the States care about heavyweight boxing anymore?
The answer is a resounding no, and if you say otherwise, I can appreciate your loyalty to your family members. But for the rest of us, there is no one in the division who can make you want to give up a Saturday night like Chris Arreola, a power-punching, F-bomb dropping, beer swilling everyman who you can’t help but root for, and that’s most likely because he’s on the same diet you are at home.
So why not capitalize on this moment, lay the groundwork for a big 2010, and start making plenty of noise about how you want to shut David Haye’s mouth and crack Wlad Klitschko’s glass jaw en route to a rematch with the only man who beat you? Let us know how you’re not going to come in at 251 pounds like you did for Klitschko, or God forbid, 263 like you did for Minto, and that you’re going to get in the type of shape that will allow you to use your physical tools to the best of their ability.
And maybe that’s why you’ve gone underground these last couple days. Maybe you’re tired of hearing comments about your weight and how it’s a prominent part of every story about you, including this one. But hey, as good as you looked in halting Jameel McCline at 255 (and I can almost give you a pass on that one because you may have wanted to bulk up to take on the giant New Yorker), there was no excuse for hitting 263 against the undersized Minto, especially when you looked at your sharpest in your 2008 win over Chazz Witherspoon. That night, you tipped the scales at a downright svelte 239 pounds, and after that fight, the whole world got excited about Chris Arreola. What may be even more impressive is that you hit 239 after a week in Memphis, a near impossible feat for anyone who enjoys eating.
Since then though, it’s been 258.5, 254, 255, 251, and 263. There’s really nothing more to say about that other than the fact that the lighter Arreola is, the faster he is and the more devastating his power can be. The heavier he is, the more plodding he becomes, and as Klitschko showed, a plodder is prime fodder for a jackhammer jab and a right hand.
Enough lecturing though, and perhaps that’s kept the ringer off on Arreola’s phone. Hey, I don’t like to be lectured either, so I can understand, but as the boxing world continues to be swallowed up by story after story on fights that a) aren’t happening or b) shouldn’t happen, wouldn’t it be nice to hear from a guy who’s willing to fight and who wants to be exciting when he does fight?
Well, you’ve got two of those guys in Arreola and former cruiserweight boss Tomasz Adamek, and lo and behold, there are rumors circulating that these two actually may fight each other in the spring. That’s great news for the heavyweights and for the sport, but does anyone know or care about it outside of the boxing bubble? Probably not, and with Arreola being the one with the language advantage here when it comes to dealing with the US media, it wouldn’t hurt for him to get out and start promoting – whether it’s for this rumored fight to become a reality, for him to get another shot at the title, or to just let the world know that hey, there’s still a heavyweight division here, and that he’s ready to make it exciting again.
But his phone just goes to voicemail.