April 30, 2021

Chris Arreola put up a good account of himself in his last fight. Against Adam Kownacki he went the distance and in so doing set a record for most blows thrown by a heavyweight. The fight wasn’t particularly competitive in that he lost most of the rounds, maybe all, but in each one he was engaged and competing. His performance inspired a blog post too (see ‘Props to the Nightmare’).

In that post I mentioned that he had said before the fight that if he didn’t win, he would retire. I defended that decision, saying it was great to see a warrior go out in one piece, his dignity intact.

“I’m too old to start over, and that’s where I’ll be if I lose, back to square one.”

So I cringed when I first heard of the matchup. But then I thought about it: Why would Arreola change his mind about this?

No doubt if he pulls off the upset, there will be a big payday yet in his future. Maybe even another good showing in a losing effort will yield for him another lucrative fight. And even if he gets stopped, he is still getting $500,000 plus a share of the pay-per-view receipts for this one (maybe as much as $1,500,000).

He is forty years old, but in a sense he is still in his prime, if he can make that kind of money. It’s his profession, what else is he going to do?

As for Ruiz, everybody wants to see him trimmed down. I’ve read that he is down to 255. I’ve seen some photo-shopped pictures, too. We’ll all see the real Andy tomorrow night. I can tell you, 255 on a 6’-2” frame is not trim. If that number is accurate, he’ll still have some upholstery on him.

And this won’t matter against Arreola. He has always fought with a spare tire too. What will make a difference is Ruiz’s speed and superior boxing skills.

Ruiz by stoppage.

May 2, 2021

Arreola continues to be the story. He continues to surprise me. First, he weighed in at 228 – the lowest of his professional career. Second, he’s an Angelino. I was under the mistaken impression that he was Mexican by birth and not an English speaker. During the pre-fight hype he said that this fight was not about the paycheck, that he wanted to best Ruiz since Ruiz had done what Arreola felt he should have done (win the world title). Given the amount of work he put into training, I believe Him.

He has changed his mind about competing at the top. He plans to continue.

And he fought a good fight. Good enough that he got all pissy at the judges scorercards, thinking he had won more rounds than the one or two they gave him. He was wrong, but I believe he was sincere in that belief. (I was a little surprised that he went all potty-mouth in front of his six year old son.) In his mind, it was a close fight.

He had a great fight strategy that had him winning until Ruiz figured it out. Too bad he didn’t seem to have a plan B. Ruiz racked up round after round with hand speed, counter punching and boxing finesse.

As for Ruiz, I was a little disappointed. Sure, he won, and won convincingly. But we all knew he would do that. He was a 20 – 1 favorite. I wanted him to mow Arreola down in 1 or 2 rounds. Had he done that the tapeworm

would likely put him at the front of the line to face one of the tall-and-lazy ones. You know, the ones that won’t fight each other.

I suppose now he’ll have to face Ortiz or Wilder or Whyte. Or, God help us all, a rematch with Arreola. Can’t we make that illegal? You can have a return bout, just not back-to-back.

And they should start stripping titles from these wankers that would rather dicker over money than actually fight. I mean suppose you were looking at a fifteen million dollar payday. Would you put the whole thing in jeopardy by insisting on sixteen?

Me either.

Wankers.