by James Slater – An amazing development has come up with regards to the career of heavyweight contender Chris Arreola – he has been banned from the ring for six months for swearing! As has been reported by a number of sources on the internet, the 28-year-old’s emotional post-fight interview that followed his brave but losing effort against WBC king Vitali Klitschko back in September angered chiefs at the WBC. And, at their recent convention in South Korea, the WBC took it upon themselves to approve the six month ban.
The ban will be back dated to the September 26th fight, meaning “The Nightmare” will be able to fight again in march of next year. This news obviously means Arreola’s planned December 5th return to the ring (no opponent had actually been officially named yet) will not go ahead. It remains to be seen if Arreola and his team will appeal the WBC’s ruling, and if an appeal would be successful anyway.
But enough about the WBC, what do you, the paying fans think? Has the organisation led by Jose Sulaiman overreacted by banning the Mexican/American for using foul language? Six months is a long time for a young fighter, perhaps an amount of time sufficient for two, maybe even three fights. It’s worth bearing in mind how Antonio Margarito, who, of course, was banned for the far more serious crime of attempting to load his gloves, received a 12 month ban. And Arreola, who is guilty of nothing more than letting his emotions get the better of him after a tough loss, gets six months – half as long an enforced time out as the Mexican! Is that fair? Not in my mind it’s not.
Surely, fighters have sworn on air before. Corner-men do it all the time. Why has the WBC, if it is so offended by swearing, waited until now to do something about it, and why have they singled out Arreola?
In all honesty, if today were April 1st, I’d be thinking right now that the WBC had perpetrated a joke on us all. But then, it’s not April Fool’s Day, and the WBC isn’t an organisation known for it’s sense of humour. You can bet your bottom dollar, though, that fans everywhere will be laughing when they read this news. The WBC, to my mind, has just lost more credibility.
I fail to see how one organisation can put into operation a ban that will stop a boxer from earning a living for a considerable amount of time, even if the fights he had planned for the coming six months were not even WBC sanctioned bouts anyway – unless the WBC has seen fit to do what it has because Arreola is still the holder of their Continental Americas title. If that’s the case, surely a more adequate punishment (if Arreola deserves one at all) would have been for them to strip the 28-year-old of the belt he won in September of 2007.
It will be interesting to hear what Arreola and his trainer Henry Ramirez have to say about all this. As will it be fascinating to see what the fighter’s promoter, Dan Goossen, does about this.