Usually, when a top heavyweight loses, especially in a major fight, he goes many months before fighting again. But that's not going to be the case with Cristobal Arreola, who was soundly beaten by titleholder Vitali Klitschko in a 10th-round TKO loss on Sept. 26.
At the news conference after the loss, Arreola (27-1, 24 KOs) said he hoped to get back into the ring in December, although that looked like a long shot because finding a spot for him on such a jammed scheduled was going to be tough.
However, things often have a way of working out and that's what happened.
Although Arreola doesn't have an opponent yet, he is penciled in to open a reshaped HBO card on Dec. 5, which will be headlined by Paul Williams from a site to be determined.
Williams, who will face an opponent to be named, was supposed to challenge middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik, but he withdrew because of his chronic left hand problem. Arreola was added to the undercard when the Joshua Clottey-Carlos Quintana co-feature was scrapped after Pavlik's pullout eliminated his promoter Top Rank from the promotion.
The move was good news for Arreola, but a real shame for Clottey and Quintana, neither of whom did anything other than get caught in the middle of promoter and HBO politics.
Henry Ramirez, Arreola's trainer, couldn't be happier about the fast return.
"The best way to get over a loss is to get your ass back in the ring as soon as possible," Ramirez said. "We'll start sparring next week, but we don't have an opponent yet."
Ramirez said he liked the idea of a fight with David Tua, whose name was initially brought up, but the short notice and a small budget made the fight impossible for Dec. 5.
"But we'd be open to fighting Tua, absolutely," Ramirez said. "Right now, we're planning to fight Dec. 5 and hopefully next week he'll have a name. But we're back in the gym and that is what is important. Cris was over [the loss] by the time we hit the dressing room. He let the emotions get the best of him for a minute there [when he cried in the ring after the stoppage], but Cris is Cris. He's doing great. He's back at it. He said he wanted to fight in December and he'll get his wish."
Ramirez likes the fast return because it means Arreola will be back in the gym quickly. After Arreola stopped Jameel McCline in April, he didn't see Arreola in the gym for three months. Obviously, that won't be the case this time.
"From April, he didn't see the inside of a gym until July," Ramirez said. "So this is going to be far less time off and far less time for him to gain weight. He's 265 now, so it's not too bad considering we started the last camp 294. Our target weight is still 240 though."
Dan Rafael
