Notebook: Arreola on Ruiz clash: 'This one is going to be a barnburner for sure'

Navarrete interview; Hart wants Berlanga; Quick hits

Heavyweight Chris Arreola turned 40 last month and he knows he is in the twilight of his career, but he is awfully convincing when he talks about how hard he has worked and how well prepared he is for his next fight.

The former three-time world title challenger will square off with former unified titlist Andy Ruiz in an expected action-packed fight between Mexican-American brawlers in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions Fox Sports PPV card on May 1 (9 p.m. ET, $49.99) with a limited number of spectators permitted at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

After Arreola got knocked out in the eighth round challenging Deontay Wilder for his world title in 2016, he appeared to be all done with boxing.

He had received three world title shots, against Vitali Klitschko in 2009, Bermane Stiverne in their 2014 rematch and Wilder, and got stopped in each of them.

But after 2½ years off, Arreola returned to win two fights in a row by knockout against reasonable opposition and then faced off with then-undefeated rising contender Adam Kownacki in August 2018.

Although Arreola (38-6-1, 33 KOs), of Riverside, California, lost a decision, they put on a sensational action fight and set a variety of heavyweight CompuBox records. Arreola looked nothing like a fighter who was all done.

And now he returns from a coronavirus pandemic-induced layoff to face Ruiz (33-2, 22 KOs), 31, of Imperial, California, who will be trying to bounce back from his horrendous effort in losing a one-sided decision and his belts to Anthony Joshua in their December 2019 rematch, a fight Ruiz entered badly out of shape after having spent so much time celebrating his gargantuan upset knockout victory to win the titles six months earlier.

“I’m ready for this fight. I’ve been waiting for this fight for four or five months,” Arreola said on Wednesday after the media was able to watch his workout at the Ten Goose Boxing Gym in Van Nuys, California, via video stream. “This one is going to be a barnburner for sure. This fight is important for my legacy. I want to make the fans happy they bought this fight. I don’t fight for paychecks. I’m a fighter for the fans. So I hope they enjoy this fight and buy this pay-per-view.

“I love what I do. I’m a fortunate person to have been a fighter since a young age. I bleed boxing. I put my whole self out there every time I fight. I know that I owe it to the fans to give them a great fight.”

“However many rounds this goes, it’s going to be fireworks.” — Arreola trainer Joe Goossen

He has known trainer Joe Goossen for many years but began working with him for the Kownacki fight and will again have him in his corner against Ruiz. Arreola may be near the end of his career, but it he said that doesn’t mean he isn’t still learning.

“Defensively, I’ve grown so much working with Joe,” Arreola said. “He’s taught me a lot about keeping my hands up and countering. He hasn’t reinvented the wheel; he’s just made sure the wheel is round.”

Goossen said conditioning will be the key to victory for both guys, which is why he plans to have Arreola in better shape than Ruiz.

“When you have two guys of the same talent, how do you determine who wins the fight? It’s the fighter who’s in better shape,” Goossen said. “That’s the underlying thought process here. Both Chris and Andy have talent, but our goal is for Chris to be in the best shape possible. The difference plays itself out in those last few rounds of the fight. You’re going to have the best Andy Ruiz that we’ve seen in this fight. And we have the same on our side. Our team has been working hard as well. I don’t expect anything but a great fight. However many rounds this goes, it’s going to be fireworks.”

Arreola, who hoped to become the first heavyweight titlist of Mexican decent before Ruiz accomplished it, has had his issues with conditioning, but he was in excellent shape against Kownacki and it showed by the sheer volume of punches he threw. He said he will be in similar shape against Ruiz, who appears to have gotten into far better condition compared to how he looked for the Joshua rematch.

“I was able to keep up the pace against Kownacki because I did everything I had to do in the gym,” Arreola said. “I could have given three more rounds at the end of that fight too. The fight is always won in the gym and we put all of the work in to win that fight. I thought I won that fight. Despite not getting the decision, it was a fun fight for me.”

Said Goossen: “We’ve been training for around four months but he hasn’t peaked too early because we’ve been consistent. Once we built up to a certain point, we’ve kept it there. He’s not worn out at all. This is what fighters are supposed to do. They’re supposed to be in the gym training. I’m very confident and calm heading into this fight, because Chris has been doing exactly what he’s supposed to be doing. That’s all you can ask for.”

Arreola was the underdog against Kownacki and is again against Ruiz. So be it, he said.

“I don’t pay attention to the odds. If people want to make me the underdog, I’m comfortable with that,” he said. “I’ve been an underdog my whole life.”

Navarrete makes first defense

Emmanuel Navarrete burst on the world scene in December 2018 by scoring an upset unanimous decision over Isaac Dogboe to claim the WBO junior featherweight title and then knocked him out in the 12th round of an immediate rematch. Navarrete had arrived and would soon continue on a fighting spree few world titleholders have pulled off in recent years.

Including his the rematch with Dogboe, Navarrete would make five defenses in nine months before issues continuing to make 122 pounds forced him to vacate his title and move up to featherweight, where he claimed the vacant WBO belt in his second fight in the division in October.

Although he was very active as a junior featherweight titlist, Mexico’s Navarrete did not get a chance to fight any top names or a unification fight. He hopes that will change at featherweight, where he is expecting a tough fight in his first defense against the experienced former junior lightweight title challenger Christopher “Pitufo” Diaz, of Puerto Rico. They meet in the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN main event on Saturday night at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida, a Puerto Rican hotbed on the outskirts of Diaz’s adopted hometown of Orlando.

I spoke to Navarrete (33-1, 28 KOs) at length this week about his junior featherweight title reign, his hopes for his featherweight run and what he expects from Diaz (26-2, 16 KOs), and I wrote about it for The Ring magazine website. Please read that story here: https://www.ringtv.com/620666-emanuel-navarrete-expects-christopher-diaz-to-be-tough-but-says-hes-ready-for-big-fights/

Hart eyes Berlanga

If red-hot super middleweight up-and-comer Edgar Berlanga defeats Demond Nicholson in the co-feature of Saturday’s Top Rank Boxing on ESPN  -- and Berlanga, who ha won all 16 of his fights by first-round knockout and is the heavy favorite -- former two-time world title challenger Jesse Hart could be his next opponent on June 12, according to Top Rank chairman Bob Arum.

It’s a fight that Hart (26-3, 21 KOs), a former two-time super middleweight world title challenger, very much wants. He has boxed his last two bouts at light heavyweight but said he would return to 168 pounds to get a crack at Berlanga, who is due back June 12 if all goes well Saturday against Nicholson (23-3-1, 20 KOs), a former Hart knockout victim.

I spoke at length with Hart about his desire for the fight and wrote about it for BoxingScene. Please read that story here: https://www.boxingscene.com/jesse-hart-ready-fight-edgar-berlanga-on-june-12-if-berlanga-wins-saturday--157097

Quick hits

Erika Cruz (13-1-0, 3 KOs), 30, of Mexico, dominated and upset Jelena Mrdjenovich (41-11-2, 19 KOs), 38, of Edmonton, Canada, to win the WBA women’s featherweight title on Thursday night in the Ring City USA main event at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where no pro fights had taken place since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. Cruz won via seventh-round technical decision by shutout scores of 70-63 on all three scorecards. Referee Benji Esteves stopped the fight 25 seconds into the seventh round because Mrdjenovich, who was making her sixth defense but being easily beaten, was bleeding badly from cuts around her right eye that was caused by an accidental head butt earlier in the fight. Mrdjenovich had not lost since 2015.

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Unified junior welterweight titleholders Jose Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs) and Josh Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs), who meet for the undisputed championship on May 22 (ESPN) in Las Vegas, submitted to their WBC-mandated 30-day weight check at their training camps. Both were within the allowable limit with Ramirez weighing 153.2 pounds and Taylor scaling 150.2 pounds.

Show and tell

From October 2009 to December 2011, Showtime bankrolled the Super Six World Boxing Series, a modified round-robin tournament involving six of the best super middleweights, a division that was very deep at the top at the time. The tournament, which awarded two points for a win and another for a knockout, began with a field of pre-tournament favorite Mikkel Kessler, second choice Arthur Abraham, Carl Froch, Jermain Taylor, Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell, although Kessler would eventually drop out due to an eye injury and Taylor also withdrew after a titanic KO loss to Abraham. They were replaced by Glen Johnson and Allan Green.

In the second fight of Group Stage 2, then-WBC 168-pound titlist Froch, who was coming off a disputed decision win over Dirrell in Group Stage 1, traveled to Kessler’s home turf in Herning, Denmark, where Kessler hoped to get back on track after losing the WBA title to Ward by upset 11th-round technical decision in Group Stage 1.

Kessler and Froch turned in a tremendous battle capped by an electrifying 12th round. Kessler won by unanimous decision, took Froch’s title and handed him his first defeat. Froch would ultimately lose to Ward in a unification fight in the tournament final and Kessler, his eye healed, would come out of retirement 14 months later and eventually lose a rematch to Froch in what turned out to be Kessler’s final fight. Froch and Kessler both had outstanding careers with several big fights, but their first meeting, which was on April 24, 2010 — 11 years ago on Saturday — was certainly among the most memorable. Here is a program, which is written in Danish, from the fight in my collection.

Photo: Sean Michael Ham/TGB Promotions