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Chris Arreola (26-0, 23 KO's, 255 pounds) (c) vs. Jameel McCline (39-9-3, 23 KO's, 271 pounds)

 

Arreola won the NABF Heavyweight Championship in his last match via technical knockout from Jack Reiss on November 29, 2008 at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California. The match was one of the most exciting heavyweight matches of the last several years, though not an especially skilled contest. Arreola showed up to the match completely out-of-shape. After throwing 106 punches in round 1, Reiss dropped Arreola with a right hand to the face with 2:33 to go in round 2. However, it appeared to be a flash knockdown. Arreola responded by knocking down Reiss with 59 seconds to go still in round 2. A weak left hand from Arreola dropped Reiss for a second time 32 seconds later. The Houstonian lasted out the round, but was dropped with a left hook that had the referee waving off the match at 13 seconds of round 3. The match was exciting, but caused boxing writer Kieran Mulvaney to joke that Arreola could not spell defense if you spotted him the "d" and the "fense" and that Arreola spelled training B-U-F-F-E-T. A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/4/10/recap-of-chris-arreola-vs-travis-walker.html Arreola is making his first defense of this title.

 

The Southern California native won his WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight Championship 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 belt in order to get a title shot at Wladimir Klitschko. Arreola is making his fourth defense of this title.

 

Arreola had an active amateur boxing career between the ages of 8 and 16. He then quit the sport, only to start boxing again in 2001. Arreola is so talented that with 3 months back in the gym he won the 2001 Golden Gloves Championships at 178 pounds. That would satiate the Arreola's desire to box for a while and he would not turn pro until September 5, 2003 with a round 2 technical knockout victory of Roosevelt Park at the Edgewater Hotel & Casino in Laughlin, Nevada.

 

As a rule, boxers are not referred to as talented in these recaps. Every boxer at the upper echelon of the sport has talent. Boxers win, because they have spent years training to be elite. To say boxers win because they are more talented then their opponents is to somewhat discount all the hard work they have done. However, Arreola wins because he is more talented then his opponents. Arreola has said in interviews after both of his last matches that he was concerned about his weight and would be back in the gym a few days later. Arreola said he had been working hard and would be down 10 or 15 pounds to the 240 pound range for this match. Yet, Arreola has gained weight since his last match. Arreola has gained 16 pounds since his match on June 21, 2008. At this point his insincerity about a desire to a be a professional athlete has become annoying. Arreola says he is not even going to try to get down to 230 pounds, again. That is a weight he made 2 years ago. The boxer claims his hips and shoulders have spread too much for him to make the weight, again. Unless he has given birth in that time, there is no way his hips have spread that much. At 20-years-old, Arreola was boxing at 178 pounds. Allowing for a growth spurt, Arreola should be competing at no higher then 200 pounds. That means there is at least 55 pounds of excess fat on his frame. There are some that like to compare him to Ricky Hatton who famously gains a tremendous amount of weight in between matches. There is one key difference here. Hatton always shows up in shape to his matches. Arreola has not done that in years, even at 230 pounds there was a lot of excess fat on his body. At 255 pounds he is clinically obese.

 

Arreola is The Ring magazine's number 8 contender to their vacant heavyweight championship.

 

McCline had little amateur boxing experience before turning pro with a round 1 technical knockout win over Brian Nix on October 10, 1995 in Rochester, New York. However, that may be somewhat of a positive at this point in his life, because it means he has taken less damage in the ring from added years of competing in the amateur ranks.

 

This is McCline's return to HBO after a 12-round unanimous decision loss to Samuel Peter on October 6, 2007 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. That match was somewhat controversial. McCline was challenging for the interim-WBC Heavyweight Championship on a Saturday, but the match was nearly canceled on Friday. The New York Daily News had broken the story that McCline had been a customer of Signature Pharmacy.  McCline had purchased at least: testosterone, stanozol, nandrolone, human growth hormone and tamoxifen, which masks the physical effects of abuse of performance-enhancing drugs. The Peter side eventually agreed to do the match with McCline being tested rigorously. The match started great for McCline. He dropped Peter for the first time in the Nigerian's professional boxing career with a punch to the neck in round 2. McCline would follow up by knocking Peter down twice in round 3. First, a right hand had Peter falling onto the canvas with 2:33 to go in round 3. Then, a left hand dropped Peter with 1:02 to go in round 3. Peter was in bad shape when the action was resumed with 45 seconds to go in the round. Unfortunately, McCline came into the match out-of-shape and was already out of energy. A gassed McCline would be unable to finish Peter in round 3. Then what had been an exciting heavyweight match became tedious. Neither boxer did much punching for the rest of the match. In round 10, both men were completely out of gas and resorted to clinching to lay on each other to get some rest. However, McCline was so inactive that he lost the next 9 rounds. It was heavyweight boxing at its worst, as 2 over-weight competitors seemed to be working to do as little as possible, but still win rounds. A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/10/11/recap-of-samuel-peter-vs-jameel-mccline.html

 

McCline's last match was a 12-round unanimous decision over Mike Mollo on November 7, 2008 at the Sichuan Gymnasium in Chengdu, China. That was a title eliminator and should have McCline as the next in line to challenge Vitali Klitschko after John Ruiz. That means if McCline wins tonight, he should be in line for a title shot within the next year or so.

 

McCline is unranked by The Ring, and the number 34 ranked heavyweight in the world by boxrec.com.

 

At 28-years-old, Arreola is 10-years-younger then the 38-year-old McCline. McCline has the height advantage standing 6' 6" tall, while Arreola stands an exaggerated 6' 3.5" tall. (If they exaggerate his height by about 2" it makes him sound less obese.) The veteran has the reach advantage with a 27" arm length measured from the armpit to the end of the fist, compared to the 25.5" arm length of Arreola. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, unless Arreola has been gorging at the world famous Las Vegas buffets for the last day (a real possibility), McCline will still be the heavier boxer in the ring. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.

 

The unified rules of boxing are in effect for this event. All of the official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are from Nevada. The referee is Tony Weeks. Harold Lederman will be keeping HBO's unofficial scorecard.

 

Arreola appeared to hurt McCline with some body punches in round 1. The good work to the challenger's soft midsection wins round 1 for Arreola, 10-9. Lederman scores round 1 for Arreola, 10-9. Arreola easily wins a slow round 2, 10-9. In round 2, Arreola out-landed McCline in total punches 20-to-5. Arreola wins round 2 on the Lederman scorecard, 10-9. With 1:30 to go in round 3, McCline is completely out of gas and is clinching to rest. McCline's strategy was to stand on the outside and jab. However, he has already run out of energy and will not have enough stamina to use that strategy for the rest of the match. In addition, McCline is not throwing punches to Arreola's gargantuan belly on the inside. On the inside, Arreola is working the soft body of McCline, while McCline holds on to catch his breath. The referee warned McCline after round 2 for holding and may take points from him if this continues. Round 3 is very close, but McCline's constant holding should cost him the round. Arreola wins round 3, 10-9, and is ahead on my scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-27. McCline wins round 3 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9, but Lederman has Arreola leading after 3 rounds, 29-28.

 

With 1:12 to go in round 4, a combination finished off by a chopping right hand sends McCline to the mat. McCline said he was retired before this match and that combination may have retired McCline for real. The veteran boxer is hurt and does not look like he wants to get up that much. He makes a token effort to stand at the referee's count of 8.5 and the match is stopped. McCline may have barely beaten the referee's count and the referee understanding McCline's body language stopped the match. The referee may also rule that McCline did not beat the count. Either way it looks like McCline's career is over and the referee was trying to let him end it in a relatively dignified fashion.

 

The official outcome courtesy of the legendary Michael Buffer is that: at 2:01 of round 4 the referee reached a count of 10 making the winner by way of knockout, still undefeated and still the NABF and WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight Champion, Chris "The Nightmare" Arreola. The win moves Arreola to 27-0 with now 24 wins coming by way of knockout.

 

The final punchstat numbers have Arreola landing 72 of the 146 total punches he threw, for an excellent 49% total connect percentage. Arreola landed 65 of the 104 power punches he threw, for an astounding 63% power connect percentage. McCline landed 24 of the 129 total punches he threw, for a 19% total connect percentage. The vanquished challenger landed 13 of the 49 power punches he threw, for a 27% power connect percentage.

 

Arreola said in his post-match interview that he is starting to finally feel ready for the Klitschko brothers. The champion was booed at the beginning of this interview, because the crowd did not find his performance during the match very entertaining.

 

McCline started his post-match interview by complaining about being called in to take the match at the last minute. (For the record, that was 6 weeks notice after he had declined the match once and HBO rejected Hasim Rahman as a potential opponent for Arreola on this show.) McCline then said Arreola is not great, but he cannot say a lot, because he just lost. Strangely, McCline was never asked about retirement.

 

Arreola was much better then McCline in this match. The champion threw combinations and had a superior strategy to the veteran. At this point, Arreola needs to face top opposition. It makes sense for Arreola to be Vitali Klitschko's next title defense after the Ukrainian defeats Ruiz. However, until Arreola starts to act like a professional and commit to boxing he will have little chance against Klitschko. Arreola uses his friends for sparring partners and does nothing to stay in shape. When confronted by a world class athlete that trains with elite sparring partners and has a Hall-of-Fame trainer Arreola will likely be exposed as a fraud.

 

McCline showed up to this match out-of-shape and got retired by a boxer who was also out-of-shape, but had more talent. The ring veteran is involved in 2 other businesses. Hopefully, McCline can do well pursuing his future endeavors.

 

 

 

This match starred a boxer that cannot be bothered to train hard. HBO tried to sell the first match as what people want in American heavyweights. That is like telling WWE fans that a match between Big Daddy V and Great Khali is a match between great big men in the sport of professional wrestling. The fans see through the hype, and know they are watching a bad match.