I think I’m pretty much in line with how Rafael thinks about Chris. I like him, he’s exciting, and I hope he’s as good as his handlers keep saying he is, but I’m not getting too up in arms about him because he hasn’t fought anyone yet. I’d credit him with the Witherspoon fight but I’ve never thought too much about Witherspoon, personally.

I do know he’s one of the most exciting heavyweights out there. The long-proposed Arreola-Tua fight would be superb. I’ll tell you, I’d rather pay $25 to see that and an action undercard than $50 for a lot of these marquee fights.

Arreola is fun to watch, but he has some major flaws:

1) He lacks discipline in training. He’s gotten much better in this regard recently (he used to train with James Toney and got into a lot of bad habits then), but he still doesn’t seem to work hard enough to improve on his areas of weakness from fight to fight.

2) His defense is almost nonexistent. That can be fine if you have a good chin and a good jab, but his head movement seems to have regressed, if anything, and his jab isn’t really stiff enough to keep people from countering when he comes in with looping shots.

3) He’s flat-footed. No different than almost any other HW these days, but I thought I’d bring it up anyway. If a halfway decent fighter actually learns better fundamentals, they might be able to dominate this division (hence the hopes for Povetkin).

4) He still hasn’t learned how to clinch. In 6 fights, I’ve seen him clinch a total of zero times. I’m convinced he’s just never learned how to do it, because he thinks it’s a sign of weakness or something. Go in against a puncher like Klitschko, and he’ll need to have that ability.

All that said, if he can get serious about correcting the first flaw, he can correct the other three. I think he has the tools to go somewhere, it’s just a question if he can get his head there. Big heavyweights with decent power, a decent chin, good workrate and good stamina don’t come along every day.

Yeah, good point about Eddie Chambers – I think he and Arreola both have the most potential.

Ruiz seems to be an over-the-hill fighter, if he gets pummelled by Nikolai Valuev next, I’m probably completely giving up on his having any chance at Klitschko. If Ruiz can beat Valuev, I’m not sure what that would mean.

In the next couple years, maybe, just maybe we’ll get to see a Chambers or Arreola vs. Klitschko fight. Chambers just has to get over and have learned something from Povetkin, and Arreola has to start beating some big names and improve his training regime.