Vitali Klitschko TKO’s The Nightmare in the Tenth
By Rob Cruz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 28 Sep 2009
This heavyweight showdown looked amazing on paper with knockout ring tactician Vitali Klitschko, 37-2 (36KO) boasting the highest KO percentage in heavyweight boxing history against the brute force Mexican from East L.A. Chris Arreola who is 27-0 (24KO).
This is Chris Arreola’s biggest test so far and had his chance to bring the heavyweight glory back to the US as the top heavyweight prospect fighting out of his home court in Los Angeles’ Staples Center.
Although the nightmare wanted to start aggressive, he could not close the gap with the taller Klitschko who had a 4 inch height advantage. Chris had trouble getting on the inside all throughout the fight. Vitali was dominant in all the rounds because he was able to keep his distance and landed many clean shots to th tune of 301 punches, 151 of them power shots. Chris ate a lot of his punches, by the end of the fifth round, his eyes swelled and nose bled from all the punches he received.
The Nightmare was clearly the aggressor in this fight and showed some spark at times especially in the eight round. But the champion demonstrated his experience and ability to pick his shots while on the defensive mode which translated into many punches landed and dominating points earned.
In the ninth round Vitali was getting more confident measuring up the distance against his opponent and convincingly landing more clean punches into the end of the fight. At the conclusion of the tenth round, both referee and Arreola’s corner agreed to stop the fight due to the unnecessary punishment taken by Chris, sealing Vitali’s TKO victory,
During the HBO post fight interview, the WBC Heavyweight champion Vitali gave credit where credit is due by complementing Chris Arreola’s chin, strength, perseverance and stated that he will be a champion one day. However, the Klitschko era in the heavyweight division is still intact with Vitali’s dominating performance Saturday night. Up until Saturday night, he still hasn't been knocked down or need to come from behind.
An overwhelmed and emotional Arreola was clearly disappointed at his performance due to his inability strike any offence close in and that he trained so hard for this fight but mentioned he’ll be back. Many boxing analysts has predicted that this fight happened too soon for Chris Arreola and that couldn't be further from the truth right now.
Now that the top heavyweight prospect had received a technical boxing lesson, the next best fight in this division is for the Klitschko brothers to fight one another for all the belts but how feasible would that be at this point of time? It may never happen.
Top photo: WBC Heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (R) of the Ukraine lands a punch before defeating Cristobal Arreola (L) of the US during their WBC Heavyweight Championship fight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on September 26, 2009. Klitschko won the fight in the tenth round. (AFP/Mark Ralston).
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rob Cruz.
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