Arreola could fill boxing void

Once boxing’s heavyweight division put its ear to the ground 12 years ago, it hasn’t been heard from much since.

That ear, of course, belonged to Evander Holyfield, who, somewhat pathetically, continues on.

The piece of Holyfield’s ear went to the canvas when Mike Tyson bit it off. Tyson, who, somewhat pathetically, still hangs around the sport, achieved the near impossible. He sickened millions of boxing fans who assumed they couldn’t be.

Yet the sport will never be as popular, nor as lucrative, without the big guys banging on each other. Oscar De La Hoya and his promoter, Bob Arum, expertly filled the void and carried the sport for much of the time since then. But whether or not he knows it, De La Hoya recently left his shoes in the ring.

The casual fan still thinks that real boxing is Dempsey-Tunney or Ali-Frazier. The sport would die for a Sonny Liston right now.

Which brings us to Chris Arreola, an unbeaten 28-year-old heavyweight from Riverside, who says he can be the savior, that 2009 is his time, and that it will come to pass this fall in a huge fight at Staples Center.

Arreola is a fascinating study. He has fought 26 times and you’d have to be an editor for Ring Magazine to recognize the names of his vanquished. He tends to be overweight, and fight that way. He has tattoos everywhere, drives one of those huge pickup trucks that should come with a ladder just to get you into the driver’s seat and he has a close friend and manager who, at 31, is younger and less battle-tested than the punching bags in the gym.

“My goal for this year,” Arreola says, “is to make Henry Ramirez coach of the year.”

Arreola will fight 38-year-old journeyman Jameel McCline on Saturday night at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. It isn’t even the main event -- that’s Paul Williams versus Winky Wright. But Ramirez says his fighter will do enough against McCline to warrant Arreola’s first shot at the real big time: the Staples bout against Ukrainian Vitali Klitschko.

“Vitali said he wants to fight us there,” Ramirez says, “so we will.”

Still, if this all sounds like little more than boxing bravado -- a phrase that Webster should list under redundancies -- it should be reexamined.

Arreola is not a big-talking hotshot. On a podium with Floyd Mayweather Jr. -- any Mayweather for that matter -- he wouldn’t get in a word. One of his tattoos is about dying young and is dedicated to his best friend, who died from bullet wounds after a gang invaded their party. He talks often about his 7-year-old daughter and has made a Yard House restaurant in a Riverside shopping mall one of his main hangouts. The bulk of the clientele, mostly schoolteachers and yuppie Lakers fans, have no idea who he is.

“Can’t get in a lot of trouble there,” he says.

Instead of talking tough, Arreola talks legacy, about how he wants to become the Mexican equivalent of Jack Johnson. Arreola was born in East Los Angeles, and seems to know the value of being a heavyweight champion with a Spanish surname.

“I want to leave a legacy,” Arreola says. “I want to open the door for a lot of my people. I believe that, when I’m done, there will be two heavyweights of Mexican descent in the top 10.

“One time, when I was out, I had a big Mexican kid come up to me and say he looked up to me. I felt very good.”

Arreola says legacy is built on longevity.

“When I get the title, I want to defend it three times a year,” he says. “I want to win it, and defend it, and keep at it.”

No less than HBO boxing commentator Larry Merchant sees more here than a big-talking big hitter. He says it would not be surprising for Arreola to steal the night from Williams-Wright.

“That’s what’s bound to happen,” Merchant says. “It’s a test. He needs one of those to convince people that he is a serious heavyweight. Some still see him as a B-level club fighter.”

Arreola’s last fight, in November at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, had elements of that. He actually was knocked down by journeyman Travis Walker but rallied to knock Walker out in the third round.

It was a fight that also had the elements of great old-time heavyweight action. Huge punches. Both fighters on the canvas and against the ropes. More action packed into two-and-a-fraction rounds than you’ll see on many entire fight cards.

Whether Arreola can take that brute force into the ring with an opponent who has the same, as well as boxing skills and movement, and prevail remains to be seen. The big guy from Riverside has a chance and a challenge. He can become the next heavyweight hope, or the next heavyweight dope.

The sport is watching. And listening.

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