Morrison's frequent struggles against sturdy sluggers of various class like Puritty, Hipp, and even Mercer are much more telling than the Bentt blowout in this matchup, but its certainly further cause for concern. I think its an interesting competitive match up regardless but Arreola being written off as fodder based off a knee against Walker and Morrison's "superior resume" just doesn't strike me as well thoughout analysis. Well, Vitali's right hand is still pretty heavy when he can land it clean as shown in the Gomez fight, some of the ones he got Arreola with nearly turned his head backwards but he stayed on his feet and kept coming forward. And while Morrison's left hook is superb he never stopped any ranked or reasonably durable fighters cold with a single shot himself.
I don't think Morrison expected Puritty to be as tough as he was either. Puritty was 8-8 at that point and he had been stopped twice. Of course he went onto be known a very durable journeyman who you shouldn't attempt to KO, as Wladimir Klitschko later experienced. I think Hipp is more around Arreola's class and Morrison did win the fight. Mercer was better than Arreola, I can't see Arreola giving Holyfield and Lewis much trouble. I wouldn't write Arreola as fodder but I can't see him being an overwhelming favorite either. He's going to get hit a lot by Morrison and I'm not too sure if he could take it for very long. If he does take Morrison's best punch then he has a very legit chance of winning, much like Mercer did after soaking up Morrison's best. I hesitate to put Arreola even in Mercer's class at this point, I guess we'll have to see how his career ends up. I thought Gomez just succumbed to an accumulation of punishment and didn't want anymore at the end. In Arreola's defense the man does have a lot of heart and continued plodding forward despite taking a beating, but Vitali doesn't seem to have fight changing KO power at this point. Against Morrison it could be different because he would be getting hit harder than ever before. Hipp was tough as nails but he was knocked out for the count: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he4apxiwg8E[/ame] 5:40
I wouldn't bet on it either,Arreola has a pretty sturdy chin ,but I think Morrison would be the hardest puncher he would have faced.
Spin,Wlad was beat end of.Purrity was a journeyman we know that,but he could punch a bit. Drawing with Morrison does not mean Arreola beats Tommy .
Morrison went through the meatgrinder to get that win, and really how I see this fight playing out, only that Arreola physically is bigger than Hipp was, and throws more punches, which is what I see as the biggest factor in leaning towards Arreola in this matchup.
If Arreola has a true top notch chin, I'd quite possibly pick him. But there's just no way we can tell for sure if he DOES. Vitali isn't a big puncher at this stage and on top of that he was backing up against Arreola throughout which took even more steam off of his shots. It showed that Arreola wasn't glass chinned but it didn't show he was granite chinned, either. I'm really surprised in how much credit people are giving Arreola here. He wasn't Ray Mercer and I don't see him taking the shots Mercer had to absorb to get the W.
That's what I think. Morrison didn't have the best chin but he showed he was tough enough to hang in there with a broken hand and jaw against Hipp and I'm not sure if Arreola could take Morrison's best. I'm well aware of Morrison's vulnerabilities but I don't have a lot of confidence in Arreola's ability.
Morrison started the ko with a right hand ,which is sometimes forgotten, he could hit with both hands . Arreola has beaten no one, met one top fighter, and been comprehensively caned.
Its a bit tiresome really. Your not going to convince me that Tommy Morrison would outclass Arreola. Morrison simply wasnt that good, and not much better than Arreola. As I said, the longer the fight goes on the bigger chance Arreola has. Neither outcome would suprise me, I could see Morrison landing his hook and hurting the easy to hit Arreola, but I could also see Arreola weathering his early onslaught and taking him out late fight and who cares if he hasnt fought someone as good as Tommy Morrison, does that mean he cant win?? Would Morrison with his style have done much better against the tall fighting Vitali? Probably not.
And also fatter than both All you have to do is watch Arreola fight for a minute against anyone and it's obvious that he isn't that good of a fighter. He looks a lot better on paper if you believe he has a granite chin and loads of power but he doesn't transfer it to the ring, at all.