Chris Arreola finally taking fighting seriously

Greg Beacham, AP Sports Writer

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009 | 4 p.m.

While Chris Arreola sweated through his new workout regimen at a sweltering gym in a grimy corner of the San Fernando Valley, it finally dawned on him: He had become the top American heavyweight prospect in spite of himself.

Jogging? Nutrition? Any serious exercise at all, beyond beating the stuffing out of heavy bags and opponents? Arreola avoided them all his life, preferring to fight mostly on his raw punching skills.

Arreola still hasn’t lost a pro bout, but what could he do if he really tried? It took a title shot against Vitali Klitschko to persuade him to find out.

“It’s hard. I’ve never done anything like this before,” Arreola said after a recent workout in Van Nuys. “We do cardio, core strength, lifting—and we train in the mornings, which I hate. We’re doing all this stuff outside boxing that I never wanted to do before.”

Arreola is a big underdog in Saturday’s bout at Staples Center, with many observers dismissing him as a sheltered contender who will take a beating for a big payday. Yet Henry Ramirez, his longtime trainer, saw a change in Arreola after signing that big-money deal to take a shot at the WBC heavyweight title in front of thousands of Latino fans cheering on the East Los Angeles native’s quest to become the first heavyweight champion of Mexican heritage.

No matter the result, Arreola is pleased he finally applied himself to the sport he began 20 years ago because it was easy to chase smaller kids around the ring. Along with eating properly, he does road work most mornings before his anaerobic strengthening workouts, and his flexibility has improved from rigid to slightly bendy.

“There’s been times when we did so much that I couldn’t work out properly in the boxing gym in the afternoon,” Arreola said. “We adjusted it, though. It’s great knowing I can push myself to an extent that I didn’t know I could.”

Although he has recent victories over Chazz Witherspoon, Travis Walker and Jameel McCline, the 6-foot-4 Arreola built his 27-0 record (24 KOs) largely against a collection of palookas and fringe fighters who mostly hold still while they’re punched. Arreola also knows he’s been the target of online derision for his ring physique, which can charitably be described as paunchy.

“Hey, I would have made fun of me, too,” Arreola said. “Boxing is not a bodybuilding sport, plain and simple. Your body isn’t going to win a fight.”

Yet even Arreola realized he would have little chance against Klitschko (37-2, 36 KOs) unless he tried something new. Arreola has sparred with younger brother Wladimir, the two-belt heavyweight champion, and 38-year-old Vitali is back in impressive form after missing several years with injuries.

“I try not to think about Klitschko too much,” Arreola said. “I just want to take it as a regular fight, even though we all know it’s bigger than that. It hasn’t hit me, but I’m training like it already did.”

Ramirez had tried to sell Arreola on more serious workouts before, but the fighter always declined until this summer. The fighter hired veteran strength and conditioning coach Darryl Hudson, who took the job precisely because of the huge challenge it presented.

“You hear all the rumors that he isn’t dedicated, he isn’t motivated,” said Hudson, who trained Sugar Shane Mosley before their partnership splintered when Mosley said Hudson unwittingly gave him BALCO steroids in 2003. “When he told me, ‘I may have run seven miles in my whole career,’ that blew me away.

“I took him to Physiology 101. Eventually, he was like, ‘Oh, that’s how my body works.’ He’s just never really been forced to challenge himself or push himself. He’s just got away with the way he’s been doing it because he’s so strong.”

Arreola first got into boxing at a gym in 1989 in Huntington Park, Calif., where his father trained fighters. Spurred by his father’s promised reward of a sparkling pair of Reyes gloves, the 8-year-old emphatically won his first fight.

“I wanted those gloves so bad,” Arreola recalls with a chuckle. “I was chasing that kid around the ring, and he was crying.”

Arreola largely lost interest in boxing in his late teens after his parents separated, but he picked up the sport again at 20, winning a national Golden Gloves title just three months later. The 28-year-old has progressed steadily since his first pro fight in September 2003, working his way through Indian casinos, hotel ballrooms and undercard fights in Las Vegas.

Arreola reached the top on his own, but his newfound dedication already has produced visible results, according to Hudson.

“He’s going to look way different because of his training,” Hudson said. “I’m just glad the stomach is falling off him. You can really see improvements.”

Arreola hasn’t taken off his shirt in front of photographers yet—but for the first time in his life, he can’t wait.

“What am I, a 7-to-1 underdog?” Arreola asked. “At the weigh-in, it’ll probably drop to 3-to-1, so get your bets in now.”