Ringside Blog: Arreola vs Klitschko went as expected
by Manny V
- Another big fight, and once again it went exactly as expected.
Before the
fight I asked Chris Arreola how he would handle Klitschko’s infamous jab. He said, “I will be either too far out of
range, or in too close for him to use it”. Easier said than done. Once
Arreola came out to the
StaplesCenter, which was packed
all the way up to the cheap seats (however some rumored that six thousand tickets were given away), he was
beeming with machismo. The type of
machismo which makes for entertaining fights, but not very strategic ones. Arreola lost a one sided fight which was
stopped after 10 rounds….read on for more…
Arreola was
in range for the jab all night. In fact
he was in range for the straight right and uppercut also. He didn’t cut off the ring and when he was in
close, Klitschko simply held on to prevent from getting hit.
Dan Goosen,
Arreola’s promoter, said after the fight that they were banking on Klitschko
breaking down, and not being able to move on his feet the entire fight. Fat chance (pun intended).
On my
scorecard, Arreola didn’t win a single round.
Its not
that Chris didn’t try to win the fight, on the contrary, he put on a tremendous
effort. Arreola didn’t pull what Bruce Seldon did against Mike Tyson; Arreola
came to fight. In fact he fought most
of the fight with only one hand. Arreola’s team later revealed that he injured his right elbow and simply
couldn’t throw with that arm.
Experience Matters
After the
fight Klitschko was very gracious in his win and paid his opponent much
respect. He said that Arreola has the
skills to be a champion but that he is lacking experience. The champion said, “no matter what job it is,
writer, plumber, boxer, experience matters. Chris is lacking experience. But someday he will win a title.”
Arreola
felt that he was experienced enough to take the fight and his team also said
that experience was not a factor.
I tend to
disagree. I think experience played a major role in the outcome of this
fight. By fight time, Chris seemed to
get too caught up in the size of the event rather than the important matters
like the size of Klitschko’s reach. Arreola’s trainer should have had a better game plan and made his pupil
stick to it during the fight instead of trying to trade jabs with a much bigger
opponent. The best thing Arreola’s
trainer did was stop the fight before Arreola was seriously hurt. Being mentally and strategically prepared
comes with experience.
Super Six
Tournament
The next
set of fights in the fantasy league are Aurther Abraham vs Jermain Taylor and
Carl Froch vs Andre Direll. My first instinct
is Abraham stops Taylor and Direll out boxes Froch. I could be wrong but on Oct 17 we will find
out. Get your prediction in.
Savannah Marshall (R) of England celebrates following her win against Elena Vystropova (C) of Azerbaijan during their middleweight 75kg final bout at the Women's World Boxing Championships in Qinhuangdao on May 19, 2012. Eight places in the three Olympic weight categories, flyweight, lightweight and middleweight, are up for grabs at the world championships, with another four awarded to small and developing countries. Marshall won 17:15. AFP PHOTO / Ed JonesEd Jones/AFP/GettyImages
