When the sun arose on the morning of September 26, 2009, Cristobal “Nightmare” Arreola was an undefeated prospect, sporting an unblemished record of 27-0, and about to fight for a world heavyweight title against Vitali Klitschko. He was continually built up by and showcased on HBO and was arguably the best American-born heavyweight. By the time the clock struck midnight at the end of that autumn day, Arreola hoped to be the first world heavyweight champion of Mexican descent.
Fast forward just ten months to present day and Arreola is somewhere in southern California, walking around in his 256 pound body with two injured hands, two losses on his record, and no significant titles.
Presumably before then — but ever since the night of September 26, 2009, Arreola has not taken his career seriously.
From the opening bell against Vitali Klitschko, it was clear that Arreola would struggle against the experienced champion. Although pouring his heart out in the ring, Arreola was never able to penetrate the elder Klitschko’s jab-built wall and was continually pummeled with the 6’7” Ukranian’s pulverizing lead left hooks.
After ten rounds of boxing for the WBC heavyweight title, Henry Ramirez, Arreola’s trainer, told referee Jon Schorle ‘no mas.’ There would be no eleventh round and subsequently, no WBC title for Arreola.
During an expletive-laden post-fight interview with HBO’s Larry Merchant, Arreola burst into tears, assuring his fans and viewers that he never wanted to give up and that he “trained his a** off” for the fight.
At the time, nobody had the right to question Arreola’s words. Sure, his stomach was soft and 251 pounds was too much for his 6’4” frame, but up until that point, he had been successful in every professional bout of his career.
It wasn’t until his next fight in December of that year that it became clear Arreola was less than fully committed to his career as a boxer.
Picking up its fallen warrior, HBO came calling for Arreola, putting his bout between he and Cruiserweight-bound, Brian Minto on the Sergio Martinez-Paul Williams undercard in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Embarrassingly, the man who trained his a** off in preparation for his title fight against Klitschko weighed in for his ‘rebound’ fight at a whopping 263 pounds. In two years, during the time between his fight against Chazz “The Gentleman” Witherspoon to the bout against Minto, Arreola ballooned from 239 to 263 pounds.
His fight against the undersized Minto may have actually been the one fight where Arreola needed the extra weight to keep him grounded after Minto continually landed his strongest punches on Arreola’s chin.
After three-plus rounds of barroom brawling, the considerably bigger Arreola dropped Minto for the final time, prompting referee Eddie Cotton to step in and call a halt to the bout.
After the Minto fight, HBO tapped Arreola once again, this time pitting him against the Polish-born, Jersey-based former world champion, Tomasz Adamek. Even though a fight in Newark, New Jersey, Adamek’s home arena, would have drawn about eight thousand or so more fans than Arreola’s home arena in Ontario, California, HBO sent its crew & cameramen to the west coast to watch its fighter take on the aspiring heavyweight.
In advance of his fight with Adamek, Ramirez told the media that he hoped his fighter would weigh in at about 240 pounds — what Ramirez claimed was Arreola’s best fighting weight.
Fat chance, Henry.
Arreola weighed in at a heavy 253 pounds. Having dropped a majority decision to Adamek in front of his hometown fans, Arreola was now clinging to a number ten ranking in Ring Magazine’s top ten heavyweights in the world.
After the Adamek fight, Ramirez informed the media that Arreola had missed multiple days of camp at a time. It showed.
This past Friday night, on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights, Arreola (29-2, 25 KO) bested Manuel Quezada (29-6, 18 KO) by unanimous decision.
Coming into the fight, Arreola gave us his same old speech about how hard he worked in prepping for his upcoming bout. This time, Arreola claimed, he only missed two days of training and one of them was because his house almost caught on fire. Further, Arreola stated that Ramirez has had him “boxing” more this camp — working on his skill set.
But just because one is physically at camp does not necessarily translate into a fighter giving everything he has day in and day out during ‘practice.’ At the end of the day, Arreola gained weight during his camp, tipping the scales at 256 pounds for the Quezada fight.
Although Arreola canvassed his opponent on three separate occasions, the “Nightmare” wasn’t able to deliver the finishing blow that people have become accustomed to in Arreola victories. Unable to get Quezada out of there, Arreola had to settle for the unanimous decision in a fight that failed to showcase either Arreola’s power or boxing ability. If possible, while Arreola’s win tally rose, his stock fell.
The choices Arreola have made outside of the ring — whether it be from a dietary or a training standpoint — have not been to his benefit.
But moreso than anything written above, Arreola may have best summed up his attitude toward his career when he said, “If Michael Phelps can smoke pot, why can’t I have a beer?”
When the sun goes down on August 18, 2010, the twice- defeated Arreola will be nursing his broken hand and hopefully be thinking of ways to repair his career.
PHOTO BY Claudia Bocanegra