Arreola's waistline growing with his rep
Boxing is made up of two worlds. In one lives the heavyweights. In the other, everyone else.
If you doubt the distinction, ask yourself this question: Could Andrew Golota ever have been born a welterweight?
Among the factors that separate heavyweights is their freedom to make whatever weight they choose. As a result, discipline is defined as eating only two slices of chocolate cheesecake with dinner, instead of the entire dessert buffet.
At weigh-ins, it's easy to spot the heavyweights: They're the only ones with smiles on their faces.
On Saturday (HBO, 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT) Chris Arreola -- who in the talent-challenged heavyweight division has been labeled The Great American Hope -- will clash with 38-year-old veteran Jameel McCline in Las Vegas. As Arreola zeroes in on his shot at a world title, the talk leading up to the fight should be about his wait for Wlad or Vitali Klitschko. Instead, it's about his weight for McCline.
In November 2006, Arreola, who was 17-0 at the time, tackled Damian Wills, whose record was 21-0-1. Arreola forced a pace more akin to a middleweight bout and won by an impressive seventh-round stoppage.
He scaled 229, and suddenly he was a player.
Six months later, Arreola, who stands 6-foot-3, faced the serviceable Malcolm Tann. The magic number rose to 235.
"Two-thirty's where I need to be," he said before halting Tann in the eighth round.
Fast-forward to June '08: Arreola chubbed up to 239 for his biggest win to date, a three-round disqualification over Chazz Witherspoon.
Arreola then jumped the 240s altogether; he scaled 258½ for his quick KO of King Kong Garcia in September, and weighed 254 for his off-the-floor knockout of Travis Walker in November.
Arreola promised he won't scale 260 for McCline. (He guessed that he'll be in the low-to-mid 240s.) What surprised us was that he said he wasn't sick of talking about his weight.
Maybe ESPN.com just interviewed him before everybody else.
"The Garcia fight, I was supposed to face David Tua," Arreola said. "I was really looking forward to it, and I let [the fallout] get to me. For Garcia, I didn't even care. I went to the gym maybe three, four times.
"Walker, I was in pretty good shape. Walker may have come in at his lightest [a career-low 231], but he was the one breathing hard.
"I don't think I'll ever see 230 again. My shoulders are wider and my body has matured."
Is that realization or rationalization? We can't be sure until Arreola finds himself in a long, tough bout. Every fighter's body is different, of course, but consider the consistency of the Klitschkos: In nine years and 23 fights, Wlad has fought within an 8½-pound range (238 to 246½). And in 10 years and 16 fights, Vitali has remained within a 5¾-pound range (244¼ to 250).
"The weight doesn't concern me very much, to tell you the truth," said Tom Brown, matchmaker for Goossen Tutor, which promotes Arreola. "If Chris' weight for this fight isn't that different from what it was for Walker, it's OK because I know how hard he's worked."
"If you take weight out of the equation," said Arreola, who is now 26-0 (23 KOs), "what can you say about me? That I always fight hard."
Arreola is sure he'll have to fight hard against McCline, whom he rates as his toughest opponent to date. McCline (39-9-3, 23 KOs) has had four shots at the title, and came close to winning in two of those fights (against Chris Byrd and Sam Peter). He has lost three of his past four, but each against top-10 fighters.
"I'm not thinking about the Klitschkos," Arreola said. "That's out of my hands. And I'm not the type to badmouth one of them to get a fight. David Haye fought one guy and talked his way in. I want to earn my shot."
Asked to forget McCline for a moment and reveal his win-the-title fantasy, Arreola offered this: "Vitali Klitschko in the Staples Center, the end of this summer. A full house, just like it was for [Shane] Mosley-[Antonio] Margarito. I'm standing with my hand raised and the people are going crazy."
He didn't include what he'll weigh.
Steve Farhood is a boxing analyst for Showtime and a writer/columnist for Boxing Monthly.
