Heavyweight Boxing News - Vitali Klitschko vs. Chris Arreola

Vitali Klitschko lost a title defense last month when Great Britain's David Haye, who was scheduled to go in the ring with him on September 12, backed out and elected to fight Nicolay Valuev instead.

Does his assignment get any easier with the new opponent - Chris Arreola?

That's the question to ponder, now that the fight has been signed for September 26 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Arreola, who has compiled a record of 27-0 with 24 knockouts, is Mexican-American and has been marketed as that rare commodity - a Latin heavyweight contender, getting something of a push from HBO, which will televise this event. Naturally, the fight is being placed in Los Angeles in the hope of drawing a healthy number of Latino fans.

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Klitschko (37-2, 36 KO's), who is from the Ukraine, won't be without followers either. He has fought twice in Los Angeles, knocking out Corrie Sanders in April of 2004 and giving Lennox Lewis quite a scare before succumbing to cuts, in what proved to be the last fight of Lewis' career (June 2003). He also has a home in Los Angeles.

The September 26 matchup is being contested for Vitali's WBC belt, which he won over Sam Peter last October. It was curious that he was getting a title shot, when in fact he had been inactive for a period of almost four years, and backed out of a scheduled defense with Hasim Rahman four different times due to a knee injury, sending the WBC title into "interim" status. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Kiev and for the Ukranian parliament, then embarked on a comeback. After the win over Peter, he defended once, defeating Juan Carlos Gomez, a former cruiserweight champion, on a ninth-round stoppage on March 21.

Vitali's brother Wladimir is the IBF and WBO champion (considered by most the #1 heavyweight out there), so there are obviously not going to be any title unifications while the brothers both hold a portion of the title.

You couldn't find a bigger contrast in styles than this one. Klitschko is 6'7" and a stand-up boxer who nonetheless can generate great power. He is somewhat stiff and often mechanical, and not the quickest defensive fighter in the world, but he can compensate for that with a strong, steady jab and great size. Arreola is shorter by at least three inches and somewhat overweight, and comes straight ahead as much more of a brawler. He throws many more roundhouse punches than Klitschko and is also wide open defensively, which could make things easy for Vitali unless Arreola really does something early to gain his respect.

"Vitali and Chris Arreola are both known as hard punchers and few experts believe this fight will go the distance," said Bernd Boente, who heads up the management group for the Klitschko’s.

That's probably true, but the difference here may be who these two guys have been punching AGAINST through the years. Arreola was brought along rather slowly by his handlers through the first sixteen bouts of his career, and even though he has posted some notable wins, namely over previously undefeated Damian Wills and Chazz Witherspoon, as well as once-beaten Thomas Hayes and Travis Walker and four-time title challenger Jameel McCline, they were all fringe contenders at best at that moment, so he has never scored a win over a legitimate top ten foe; certainly no one on the order of Lewis or Sanders or Sam Peter, who Klitschko beat after his layoff.