Breakdown Vitali Klitschko vs Cris Arreola
I have good news for those of you with weak eyes; this breakdown will not take nearly as long as last week’s between Floyd Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez. That’s because that match up was between arguably two of the top three pound for pound fighters in the world. The other name missing? Manny would be a clue.
No, this fight this Saturday night from the Staples Center in Los Angeles features only one skilled guy and that would be Vitali, WBC Heavyweight Champion and older brother of IBF and really THE Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko. And, even though I said Wladimir is the real Heavyweight Champion and, I think, now the better of the two brothers who will never face off, I actually believe Arreola would have a better chance at derailing him than Vitali.
The reason is simple. Wladimir does have, and will always have, that suspect chin, and the only chance Arreola would have against either Klitschko would be a punchers chance.
Lets break it down, Vitali is 38 years of age, very injury prone, has taken many long layoffs from the sport due to injuries, but I don’t really think it has hurt him because as he has taken time off, the Heavyweight division has weakened so much so that the only guy out there that can beat him is his younger bro, who he will never lace ‘em up with, for real at least.
Vitali is a nice boxer, has become very relaxed inside the ring, good jab, good right cross, tough to hit, can go the distance, doesn’t waist many punches and has an ok defense. His best defense is his size being over 6’ 7” and with an 80-inch reach, he will possess an over 3-inch height advantage and a 3-inch reach advantage over Arreola. I guarantee it will seem like 10 inches the way I feel Vitali will use it to his advantage!
Arreola is ten years the junior of Vitali but, in his case, youth is inexperience. Vitali has been in the ring against the likes of Samuel Peter, Kirk Johnson, Chris Byrd, Larry Donald, Vaughn Bean, Herbie Hide and, of course, Lennox Lewis over his 13 year professional career. Arreola turned pro in 2003 and the best he has faced is Jameel McCline in his last fight earlier this year, a 4th round KO win to keep his record at 27-0 (24 KO’s).
I like Chris. He seems like a nice young man attempting to kind of do what John Ruiz did on a few occasions: become a Latin America Heavyweight titlist. Ruiz was of Puerto Rican heritage, Arreola of Mexican. Chris is tough, strong, can punch somewhat, but he is very, very crude. There’s crudely effective, then there’s just plain crude. He is just crude, and my main problem with him, just like with Sam Peter, is his conditioning, or lack there of. He does not get himself in condition to go a tough twelve rounds. He has never been beyond eight rounds and has only one had one fight go to the scorecards back in 2005.
I know you can say that was the case with Mike Tyson back in the day. This ain’t Mike Tyson and it ain’t back in the day, pardon my lack of better grammar, but you get my drift.
Arreola’s only real chance is to go all out early, and do some kind of damage to the injury prone Dr. Ironfist. Will this work? Probably not, but it’s his only chance of winning. Vitali wins via mid-round stoppage. Enjoy the fights and remember hands up and chin down.
