by James Slater – Henry Ramirez, trainer of heavyweight contender Chris Arreola, has confirmed to Ring on line that his charge will indeed be back in the ring on the Paul Williams card set for December 5th. Though some people may feel the 28-year-old is coming back to work too soon after his brave but losing effort against WBC heavyweight king Vitali Klitschko, Ramirez says his fighter is physically and mentally over the loss to “Dr. Iron Fist” and is ready to resume fighting. Arreola, now 27-1(24) will start training for his return bout today, in Riverside, and the only question that remains is who will “The Nightmare” face on Dec. 5th? According to Ring on line, three names have been mentioned as possibilities: the recently returned David Tua, former WBC champ Oleg Maskaev and former world title challenger Ray Austin..
Obviously, Tua’s name attracts the most excitement, and the thought of an Arreola-Tua slugfest is enough to bring shivers to the spine – what a great fight that could be! However, before we get too excited, Ramirez, for one, isn’t convinced Tua is the man his fighter will be meeting; not yet anyway.
“Who knows whether it [a Tua fight] could happen?” Ramirez said in talking to Ring on line. “I have a feeling money will be an issue, though ……. I spoke to Dan [Goossen] and Tua’s name came up but he doubted it would happen. All I know is we start training tomorrow.”
The two other names being talked about, in Maskaev and Austin, would also be good fighters against which Arreola could return to action. Maskaev, though 40, remains a big puncher, especially with his right hand, and an Arreola-Maskaev fight has been a possibility in the past. “The Rain Man,” Ray Austin, is probably the least attractive of the three options, being that he is the least known name of the three. But whoever Arreola comes back against, it’s safe to say there will be much fan interest.
And Ramirez said nobody needs to worry that his warrior is coming back too quickly.
“The best way to get over a fight is to start preparing for another one,” Ramirez said. “We’re just waiting to hear the name. This doesn’t give him too much time off but, hey, the problem Chris had is too much time between fights. That’s not going to be a problem now. Some might feel it’s too soon after a disappointing loss but we don’t feel that way.
“People want to say he was beaten to a pulp [Vs. Vitali]. Maybe if I’d allowed the fight to go two more rounds, then he might not be able to fight Dec. 5th. He was over it that night, though. If I thought he wasn’t physically ready, he wouldn’t be fighting.”
So, being the tough guy he is, Arreola has apparently put the 10th-round retirement loss behind him, just as he promised he would in interviews he gave shortly after the September 26th bout. Can “The Nightmare” storm back with an eye-catching KO win now? It may be, especially if he does face Tua, that Arreola’s fight winds up getting the most fan attention on Dec. 5th!
And even if Arreola doesn’t fight Tua then; let’s all cross our fingers that the two exciting bangers do meet one day soon. Again, that fight has classic written all over it.