Floyd is a master technician and that fighting mindset doesn’t allow him to take unnecessary chances, especially at a higher weight where there has yet to be evidence that he is capable of stopping a bigger man. Mayweather can certainly punch; he would have never achieved such heights is he couldn’t. But don’t expect him to suddenly pull power out of his bag of tricks because that’s one element of his game that has rarely been considered special.
2. Canelo needs to pressure Floyd to win. For a long time I wondered what could be the benefits of the Mayweather style of mitt work: that rhythmic slapping that looks pretty but wouldn’t appear to be of much use in a real fight. It wasn’t until I saw Andre Berto and David Haye working the mitts that I figured it out.
(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) Chris Arreola came into last night’s fight with Seth Mitchell wearing a robe that had written on it “you don’t play boxing.” A clear dig at Mitchell’s attempts to transfer his physical skills from the football pitch to the boxing ring, Arreola’s statement was borne out – in quite devastating style.
Chris Arreola just did what most of us expected. He stopped Seth Mitchell in 1 easy round. It was over so fast that it proves absolutely nothing. No real surprise here. Mitchell simply isn’t that durable and it showed again. While the victory probably doesn’t prove much in the grand scheme of things, Arreola just gained some momentum. This is especially true if you consider how poorly he fared in his previous fight against Stiverne. The celebratory pushups by Arreola were probably a bit much, but this was Chris’s biggest win in a long time, or at least his flashiest and most explosive win under a televised spotlight. He had reason to be happy. He actually even appeared trimmer and thinner than he has in years. Dare I say he almost looked like a fit professional prizefighter. Arreola finally seems to be picking up the pieces and putting them back together, something he promised to do after losing to Vitali but never did.
(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) The fight ended quickly and so did heavyweight Seth Mitchell’s career as a prospect. 31 year old prospects with KO defeats on their record are not a bizarre concept nowadays. Chris Arreola deserves his encouragement for winning and if this was an eliminator of sorts, the right man advanced to the next level. I am not sure this was a boxing match though and I’ll give my grounds for doubting the obvious.
Ghana based Nigerian slugger, Isaac Ekpo is expressing delight at landing a shot at the WBO Super Middleweight title but has quickly got down to fervent training ahead of his big night against incumbent champion, Russian born German, Robert Stieglitz on October 19 at the Messehalle, Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany.
You can call Cristobal Arreola a lot of names. The fact is no matter what version shows up he always brings a sturdy chin to the table, something Arreola will try to expose in his opponent Seth Mitchell. Come Saturday night one man will stay on major premium television. The other will be reduced to gatekeeper of an already weak division especially domestically. 