Prime Arreola wins. Ruiz had problems and got hurt by 40 years old Arreola. 40 years old is ancient in boxing years.
Wouldn't have made a difference really. Arreola more or less fights the same now as he always did. The younger version had a bit more power and durability, but was also frequently grossly overweight and crude. This older version lacks the punch resistance but tends to be a bit smarter with how he throws his shots. I was actually quite impressed with his counterpunching ability versus Ruiz, and that's the first time I've ever been impressed by Chris Arreola. Just a reminder but here's a prime Arreola in action. Not exactly stunning stuff is it? This content is protected
Perfectly said, and I think many people on this forum are not realizing this. Arreola was arguably a better version of himself last night than he ever was. And I know a lot of people find that hard to believe, because he's 40 years old. But Arreola was not a great fighter in his prime, he was very average for a Heavyweight. And like you said, when he was younger he was a lot more open and aggressive. He's now more defensively sound than he was earlier in his career, less aggressive, more calculated. And as a wily veteran he surprised Andy early on with a flash knockdown who may have been a little too overconfident. Sometimes when you fight someone who you're expected to beat, you end up trying to do too much and leave yourself open and get dropped. Sort of like when ancient Roy Jones dropped Calzaghe in the first round. Or even to an extent when RJJ got KO'd by Tarver. We've seen it time and time again when a fighter who is favored to win is trying to so hard to impress and win rounds so convincingly and show how much better he is that he leaves himself open and ends up gets dropped. I think you're absolutely right that Arreola never fought so cautious (or calculated) as he did against Ruiz and this created the knockdown scenario as Andy was trying so hard to impress and look great that he let his guard down and Arreola capitalized.
I agree wholeheartedly. I was impressed as well with his counter punching ability. I agree that this was the first time that I've ever been impressed by Arreola, and that's saying something as he's now 40 years old. In his younger days, I don't think anyone thought Arreola was anything special, but the way he fought last night was impressive.
Arreola is way past prime but in his prime he was way too fat and heavy. His current weight is what he should have been weighing ten years ago, he would have been much better than he was.
If he had weighed 228, 230 instead of 250, 260 in some of those prime fights, he might have been a champion-level fighter instead of just a routine contender.
In a weird way this kind of reminds me of Andrew Golota. A couple of Golota's best fights were late in his career vs Byrd and Ruiz, but it was obvious his physical prime was long gone due to age and injuries, but he fought smarter/more disciplined than he had in his younger days.
I kinda agree with you. Still, I think that Vitali deserves some credit for beating a young Arreola in his own backyard when he was already 38 years old.
I think he beat just about the best version of Arreola i've ever seen on Saturday. At least the best version in a long long while. Def better than the ones who fought Wilder and Stiverne. Arreola came in at a career low weight, with Joe Goosen in his corner, the best possible game plan and against a ring rusty and nervous Andy Ruiz, and still lost a UD. Yes he is 40 but this was a great performance that everyone is just attributing to Andy Ruiz being overrated. Give Arreola credit people expected him to get KO and he actually was winning the fight for the first few rounds before Ruiz adjusted. Far better performance than any of his title challenges.
