The Sports First Mexican Heavyweight Champ?

Last Saturday night in Ontario, California, fight fans got the opportunity to witness a work in progress as Mexican heavyweight contender Chris Arreola made short work of Travis Walker. Listening to the buzz on the streets and around the fight world, it's become obvious that everyone who witnessed the fight was left with a strong opinion one way or the other on Arreola.

To some, he's viewed as being somewhat in the mold of a David Tua, equipped with great punching power, but little beyond that. Then there's the contingent that finds him to be the 'truth', yet simply unmotivated by a name that few aside from himself could recognize.

Either way it goes, one thing that no one can overlook is the fact that 23 of his first 26 career opponents have been escorted back to the showers early and even if that list does consist of a few cupcakes, undoubtedly there were a few bitter-sweets as well that weren't too easy to digest.

At age 27, there's no doubt that it's too early in his career to have people questioning his eating habits and lack of motivation, but what's even more of a concern for the heavyweight contender is that to date, he's never been beyond eight rounds in 26 professional fights.

The career of Kelly Pavlik quickly comes to mind when you consider the many parallels present. Like Arreola, Pavlik had also gone through his first 26 professional fights before he went beyond the 8th round, and despite the victory, it remained a concern to many around his camp. That concern later came to life as Pavlik would later look very ordinary in his first fight beyond that point (Pavlik/Taylor 2), and would subsequently lose for the first time in his career the next time he went that far (Bernard Hopkins).

Arreola has proven that he can deliver power, and to a lesser degree perhaps take some as well, but what he needs to prove next is that he can remain disciplined enough to put in the work necessary to achieve the greatness that many hope he can.

To become the first Mexican heavyweight champion would be an amazing feat to accomplish and Saturday nights victory effectively put him under the spotlight. With so many expectations bars set before him, perhaps for once fight fans can finally understand the source of his weight issues. To some that may not make much sense, but when you think about it, there's no doubt that the sports biggest Mexican heavyweight contender clearly has a lot on his plate!

Stay tuned....