Brick City Boxing

By Les Dowgier

This weekend is a great one for boxing fans, as Chris Arreola, Paul Williams, Tavoris Cloud & Vitali Klitschko are all in action, with the first three all fighting on the same card.

The elder Klitschko, 43-2, 40 KOs, will be back in the ring this Saturday at the Olympiahalle in Munich, Germany after defeating a very game but overmatched Tomasz Adamek via 10th round TKO in his last fight in September of last year. Vitali’s opponent will be the unheralded and, according to many, undeserving Dereck “Del Boy” Chisora, 15-2, 9 KOs. Though Chisora is coming off of a very impressive showing against the highly regarded prospect Robert Helenius, with some boxing pundits claiming that Chisora was robbed by the decision, it is hard to imagine this fight ending in any way other than an easy victory for the Ukrainian champ. Despite looking good against Helenius, Del Boy has looked subpar in many of his previous fights, including his loss against Tyson Fury in the summer of 2011, not exactly a top class opponent. The bottom line is that this is a fighter with less than 20 professional fights under his belt (and an amateur career consisting of approximately the same amount of fights) squaring off against a man who, along with his brother, has ruled the heavyweight division for the better part of a decade. Is Vitali getting up in age and is he becoming prime for a fall? Sure. Do upsets happen in this sport? Of course. But I don’t see either of those things happening this weekend in Germany. Looking good against Helenius is one thing but fighting one of the Klitchkos certainly another. Look for another easy victory for Dr. Ironfist.

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On the same night, several thousand miles away in Corpus Christi, Texas, the American Bank Center will be the location of an unusually stacked boxing card (at least by today’s standards) as Chris Arreola, Paul Williams and Tavoris Cloud will all in action.

Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola, 34-2, 29 KOs, will be taking another step toward a second title fight as he takes on Eric Molina, 18-1, 14 KOs. Since losing to Vitali Klitschko in his first title fight back in 2009, Arreola, still America’s best heavyweight, has rattled off a record of 7-1, 5 KOs and has shown a new attitude towards the sport and actually being in shape for fights. Though at 6’5 Molina is a tall and rangy heavyweight and he has not lost since his pro debut, he should be no match for the much more experienced and heavy hitting Arreola. Also, motivation should not be an issue for Arreola as a win on Saturday might mean that his next fight will be against one of the Klitschkos.

IBF Light Heavyweight Champion Tavoris “Thunder” Cloud 23-0, 19KOs, will put his title on the line against former WBA Light Heavyweight Champion Gabriel “Chico Guapo” Campillo, 21-3, 8 KOs. Though Campillo will not be an easy opponent and should make things interesting, it is unlikely that the talented Cloud will be leaving Texas without his belt.

In the main event and most interesting fight of the evening, former two time WBO Welterweight Champion Paul “The Punisher” Williams, 40-2, 27 KOs, will square off against James Kirkland conqueror Nobuhiro Ishida, 24-6, 9 KOs. Williams, just 1 fight removed from his devastating knock out lost to the current middleweight king Sergio Martinez, will attempt to show the boxing world that he is still a top level fighter and deserving of a title shot. In his last fight, Williams defeated the very talented Erislandy Lara, 15-0-1, but did so via very controversial mixed decision, leading many people to question whether Williams is simply a ruined fighter after suffering that tremendous knockout at the hands of Martinez. Despite the possibility that Williams might not be the same fighter that he was before the Martinez fight, and the fact that Ishida is a skilled fighter that has shocked the boxing world before, I see Williams winning this fight. Williams is well aware that anything other than a clear and decisive win against Ishida will most likely mean the end of his career as a top flight boxer. For this reason, I see Williams, still a very talented boxer, being tremendously motivated and well prepared for this fight. Though Ishida has shown that he does have knockout power, as long as Williams fights smart and uses his height and reach to this advantage, he should have his hand raised at the end of the night.