Enough Already, Chris Arreola

You hear it all the time in a sport like boxing. For one reason or another, Fighter A puts on a bad showing and either loses a bout he should have won, or wins in disappointing fashion. "I was looking ahead to my next opponent", he might say regretfully, or, "I was distracted by promotional problems, but now that my team is back together it won't happen again."

For Chris Arreola, the now routine excuse is simply that he didn't train hard enough, and that he and everyone in his camp knew it. Well, it's enough already, Arreola, and it's time to either shape up or ship out. Arreola has made as many excuses about his weight and his training as Brett Favre has made retirement speeches, and the act is just as tired and strung out.

As the 6'4" Arreola began to gain national recognition as an American heavyweight prospect to watch about four years ago, he weighed in for fights at as low as 229 pounds, as he did in November of 2006 when he knocked out Damian Wills. His next fight, a TKO win over unknown Zakeem Graham three months later, saw him tip the scales at 230 lbs, and in his outclassing of fellow prospect Chazz Witherspoon in June of 2008, a coming out party of sorts, he came in at a still reasonable 239 lbs.

Nobody would have mistaken Arreola for a bodybuilder, but like an offensive lineman mowing down his smaller defensive counterparts, his body composition seemed to allow him to get the job done. Not so much anymore.

Arreola's Climb to The Top... of the Scales

It was just a year ago when Arreola, a Mexican American, was aspiring to be like the iconic Jack Johnson. He longed to be the first fighter of Mexican descent to win the heavyweight title, following in the footsteps of Johnson, the first African American to win the crown. Then undefeated, with a record of 27-0 with 24 stoppage victories, Arreola had the punch and the personality to win over fans of all backgrounds.

Of course, what followed was a humiliating beat down at the hands of Klitschko the Elder, Vitali. The WBC heavyweight titlist pummeled the 251 pound Arreola for 10 brutal rounds until the fight was stopped. Before the Klitschko fight, as rumors swirled about his hard-partying nights and heavy-eating days during training camp, Arreola said that he wasn't worried about his weight. In fact, prior to the biggest fight of his life, his team brought in a strength and conditioning coach. That didn't stop him from weighing 20 lbs more than he did several years prior.

His next bout, an expected thrashing of the smaller Brian Minto, was supposed to reveal the new, dedicated Arreola. Fans saw more from him that night, or at least more of him, as he revealed a jiggly 263 pound frame.

He followed up that performance by dropping a decision to the more skillful Tomasz Adamek, a former light heavyweight and cruiserweight titleholder. The fight was supposed to be a chance for redemption, with another potential title shot left dangling in the future, and promises were voiced repeatedly about the newfound dedication that Arreola had for the sport. Not quite, as he weighed in at a robust 250 lbs and then was out-hustled for 12 rounds. The excuses began to pile up, as we heard the cries from his trainer Henry Ramriez that Arreola's training camp for the bout had been the worst he had ever been a part of, for any fighter, in his career.

After all of this came his most recent outing, a sloppy decision victory over fellow Mexican American heavyweight Manny Quezada on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights. Yet again, we were told Arreola had gotten his act together, and was ready to get his career back on track. However, he weighed in at 256 lbs, six pounds more than the Adamek fight four months prior. As analysts Teddy Atlas and Joe Tessitore pointed out, how seriously could he have trained, if following the worst training camp that his trainer had ever been a part of, he came into the next bout as an even heavier fighter? No disrespect to Quezada, but a sharp and conditioned Arreola could and should have taken him out early in the fight.

Shape Up or Ship Out

Chris Arreola can eat and drink and not train all day long, and that's his right, but let's stop pretending that he's even a moderately intriguing heavyweight contender. He's about a six pack and hamburger away from the Eric "Butterbean" Esch circuit, and if that makes him happy, he should go for it. Just stop eating up valuable network television dates, when there are dozens, if not hundreds, of hungrier fighters willing to take the spot. Chris Arreola, it's time to shape up or ship out.

Sources:

Boxrec.com

Chris Arreola Aspiring to Be Like Jack Johnson

ESPN2 Friday Night Fights