By James Slater: Just when we were looking forward to a possible “fun” fight at heavyweight, between Chris Arreola and Mike Mollo, does the fight get cancelled. Various web sites have reported how “The Nightmare” has been forced to withdraw from the June 23rd fight that was set for the Ortiz-Lopez bill at The Staples Centre in L.A.
According to Leave it in The Ring radio show, who spoke with Arreola’s trainer Henry Ramirez, an arm injury is the reason for the withdrawal of the WBC #1 ranked heavyweight contender.
“He’s out with an arm injury,” Ramirez confirmed while speaking on the radio show. “We were pondering what we were going to do. We decided earlier today it was best for Arreola to heal the injury. This has been a long time injury. If you notice in his fights he shakes his left arm periodically. During training camp his arm would go dead once in a while. This time he just had to pull out of the fight.”
Team-Arreola cannot be blamed for doing what they’ve done – after all, the 31-year-old Mexican-American is next in line to face Wladimir Klitschko (assuming “Dr. Steel Hammer” takes care of Tony Thompson in their July 7th rematch). Why would Ramirez let his fighter fight with an arm injury and risk ruing his big chance? Ramirez is way too smart for that.
It’s not yet clear if the Mollo fight will be rescheduled or indeed, if Arreola will now go straight into the talked-of fight with Wladimir. For that fight, whenever it comes off, Arreola, 35-2(30) will have to be in absolutely perfect, tip-top physical condition. Something he is not in at this time.
It’s a real shame for the returning Mollo, as reports say he had trained mightily hard for the last two months. Hopefully, Mike will get his big chance at a later date; either against Arreola or another top name heavyweight contender.