Arreola pounds McCline into submission, who will be next?

Riverside, California resident Chris Arreola dismantled Jameel McCline in 4 rounds at the Mandalay Bay Casino, Las Vegas on Saturday night in a HBO televised bout. Many people were looking forward to this fight as young hopeful Arreola was taking his toughest fight to date, at least on paper. But despite Arreola coming in overweight at 255 pounds and taking a few flush shots from the beefy 271 McCline. Arreola had things mostly his own way until he lowered the boom in the 4^th round.

While Arreola was overweight, I felt McCline was out of shape. And there is a difference. Areola should weigh less for his fights and I think he would benefit with increased sharpness if he did but he had plenty of sparring and was fitter than his physique would indicate. McCline, on the other hand, weighed in at a familiar poundage but his usually lean physique was flabby and soft. In fact, I’ve never seen McCline’s appearance look that shabby.

McCline said he had a short camp, about 6 weeks, and it showed. I don’t think he pulled out all the stops for this fight like he has for matches in the past. And while I believe McCline knew where he stood, he was going to take a shot at a win. McCline was mostly beaten to the punch and looked uncomfortable against Arreola but the veteran has experience and in the 3^rd round, he unloaded and landed a few bombs on Arreola. McCline knew that his window to win was shrinking but gave himself that chance when he unloaded.

The problem for  McCline was he was already badly gassed and the clean punches he landed didn’t have much of an effect on Arreola. Arreola shrugged them off and continued to land. Arreola landed some sizzling body shots through out the fight but he began to find some success with the uppercut and a follow-up right hand in the 3^rd round.

And after tenderizing McCline early in the 4^th round, Arreola landed a lovely uppercut that began a 4 punch salvo that culminated with an overhand right that dropped the big man in a heap on his side. McCline wasn’t mentally gone or near a loss of consciousness but he was gasping for breath and knew it would not  be worth it to beat the 10 count.

So McCline did the smart thing and ceded to Arreola by missing the 10 count by a second or so. The beating just would have become more savage and one sided and at nearly 39 years old and with a lot of ring mileage, McCline didn’t need that in his life at that time.

Do I think Arreola would have beaten a better prepared McCline? Yes. And it believe it would have been inside the distance but probably several rounds longer. Do I think it was a meaningful win? Yes, because even though McCline was out shape he’s never really been that easy an out. Arreola mopped the floor with a perennial contender that had been reasonably active.

I understand Arreola has flaws which I think are mainly his unwillingness to condition himself 100%. But he get’s away with it, so far, because while he may be a lazy athlete, he’s a real fighter with talent and ability. He’s got heart, desire and the will to win even though it doesn’t manifest itself when he’s jogging in the desert.

In spite of being dropped in his previous fight and slightly buzzed in this one, I think Arreola can take a good shot. McCline had major leverage and had all of his 271 pounds on a few of the bombs he planted on Arreola but they didn’t have a big effect. And McCline has hurt and dropped many quality guys in his career with his thudding shots.

And Arreola brings a unique type of pressure that makes dealing with him a very difficult proposition. If he’s overweight, he may look somewhat sluggish and awkward but he still manages to get to point where he’s lining up an opponent for damaging power shots and all they are able to do is try to cover up. Once he’s inside, his eyes are wide open and he sees what to do. And before you know it he’s slinging punches from all angles that have just been taking guys apart.

The big question remains is can he be an elite heavyweight and further, can he compete win the Klitschko brothers. I think he can. But I do think if he fights the Klitschko’s or Alexander Povetkin, Eddie Chambers and even the lighting quick and explosive David Haye, he will have to cross the t’s and dot the i’s on his preparation.

Arreola is an extremely colorful and likeable fighter. He’s all tatted up and scary as hell to look at but he is a family man that comes across as a humble and approachable gentleman when not doing battle in the ring. In other words, he doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder – except perhaps inside the ring, and even then he’s respectful to the sport and his opponent. Although, that doesn’t mean he isn’t trying to take his opponent’s head off.

He just comes off as honest, real and refreshing. What you see is what you get. There is nothing phony or pretentious about him and the fact that he’s even honest about his shortcomings when it comes to training and getting prepared make him seem all the more human. And if he can simply get it all together in the gym, we just may have the first Mexican/American heavyweight champion the sport has ever had. And I’d be okay with that.