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Versus Fight Night Live Recap

September 25, 2008

Soboba Casino-San Jacinto, California

WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight (200+ pounds) 10-Round Championship Match:

Chris Arreola (24-0, 21 KO's, 258.5 pounds) (c) vs. Israel Garcia (19-1, 11 KO's, 246 pounds)

Arreola won this title when it was vacant via knockout at 1:45 of round 3 over Thomas Hayes on September 21, 2007 at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario, California. The previous champion was Tony Thompson, who vacated the title to take a match that made him the mandatory challenger to one of Wladimir Klitschko's heavyweight titles. This is Arreola's second title defense.

The Riverside, California resident had a good amateur career winning the National Golden Gloves Championship at 178 pounds in 2001.

After winning the Golden Gloves tournament, Arreola's weight ballooned. He made his pro debut roughly 2 years later, 58 pounds heavier at 236 pounds. Arreola would continue to add weight previously peaking at 256 pounds for a 6-round unanimous decision victory over Andrew Greeley on September 23, 2005 at the USC Lyon Center in Los Angeles, California. Arreola has proved himself the to be the "heavy" type of heavyweight in every sense of the word. Arreola has slimmed down since then. However, he still looks like a 200 pound boxer trapped in the body of a portly heavyweight.

The champion's last match was a win via controversial disqualification over Chazz Witherspoon at 3:00 of round 3 on June 21, 2008 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee. Witherspoon was disqualified for his corner entering the ring before the bell after Witherspoon had been knocked down. However, an official outside the ring appeared to make the decision to disqualify Witherspoon, when under the unified rules of boxing only the referee can disqualify a boxer. The entire situation was very convoluted. The full recap of that debacle can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/9/25/recap-of-chris-arreola-vs-chazz-witherspoon.html

For that match 3 months ago, Arreola weighed-in officially at 239 pounds, and appeared at least 20 pounds over weight. That means in a little more then 3 months he has gained 19.5 pounds. This seems to indicate that Arreola has spent very little time in the gym working on his boxing career during that time. However, his preparation for the competitive eating circuit seems to be coming along quite well.

Arreola is The Ring magazine's number 10 contender at heavyweight to their vacant championshipin the weight class.

Garcia has been brought in to lose this match. Versus and Showtime seem to be the two television networks in the United States most obsessed with creating the next great American heavyweight. Garcia has a glossy record that can try and convince fans that do not know better Arreola is beating a top opponent.

The New York City, New York residenthas never been past 6 rounds and only been in 2 scheduled 8-round matches. The best opponent Garcia has faced in his career is Taurus Sykes. Sykes defeated Garcia via 6-round unanimous decision on April 29, 2001.

The challenger's last match was a technical knockout victory at 3:00 of round 1 against Innocent Otukwu on March 5, 2008 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.

Garcia is unranked by The Ring, and the number 144 ranked heavyweight in the world by boxrec.com.

At 27-years-old, Arreola is 11 years younger then the 37-year-old Garcia. Arreola has the height advantage standing a generous 6' 4" tall, while Garcia stands 6' 3" tall. The champion has the reach advantage with a 77" wingspan, compared to the 76" wingspan of Garcia. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, the obese Arreola will be the heavier boxer in the ring. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.

California's modified version of the unified rules of boxing will be in effect for this event. In California, both the referee and doctor can stop the match. Also, an accidental foul that leads to a premature stoppage will send the match to the scorecards after the start of round 4. The home areas of the judges' keeping official score of this match from ringside are not announced, nor will they be for the entire event. The referee is Dr. Lou Moret.

Arreola dominates round 1 to take it, 10-9. Garcia's body is almost as soft as Arreola's. In round 1, the challenger only threw one punch to the soft body of Arreola. Arreola never had to go to the body of Garcia, because he was punishing the challenger with uppercuts. It is surprising Garcia was able to take all of those unblocked punches and stay standing. Arreola easily wins round 2, 10-9. It is ridiculous that a boxer as highly ranked as Arreola got matched up with a boxer like Garcia, especially in a match for abelt. With 1:52 to go in round 3, Garcia got pinned up against the ropes and was taking a barrage of unprotected punches that forced the referee to step in and stop the match. Garcia's corner feels the stoppage was premature. However, Garcia was over-matched and had taken a lot of clean hard punches, already. The referee was correct to stop the match at that time.

The official outcome from the always "Classy" Jimmy Lennon, Jr. is that:at 1:11 of round 3 the referee has called a stop to this contest making the winner by technical knockout, still undefeated, and still the WBC Continental Americas Champion, Chris "The Nightmare" Arreola. The win moves Arreola to 25-0 with 22 of those wins coming by way of knockout.

Arreola said in his post match interview that it was a D+/C- performance.The champion thought he should have knocked out Garcia earlier. Arreola said he will be back in the gym in a week to train for a match against a top opponent in November.

The only thing Arreola proved in this match was his lack of dedication to boxing. He came in out of shape and beat up a boxer who was not in his league. Arreola should face a real contender next to prove he is more then a boxer who has put together an impressive record by beating weak opposition.

Garcia is a journeyman heavyweight. He will now go back to fighting on the undercards of small time shows in New York.