This video is from March 29, when you could already see a clear change in Chris Arreola's physical condition, even with a shirt on and everything. Arreola is harsh on himself about a bad 2010 that left his career sinking, and promises -- for real, it appears -- to give more respect to his boxing career.
(Language NSFW)
I long ago said on this site that I wasn't going to harp on Arreola for being a fat, out of shape heavyweight anymore. By my reasoning, it was both pointless and tired. He wasn't going to stop being fat. He'd promised before. So why keep waiting? You might as well have gotten angry at the sunset. And anyway, at least he put on watchable heavyweight fights, a rarity in today's world.
But now seeing Arreola bust his own chops, and do it while he's actually clearly getting back to his serious fighting weight, my Arreola fandom is coming back in a big way, and here I am, like a sucker, buying into it. I mean, I hope I'm not a sucker. But Arreola -- and he seems to understand this -- has to actually prove it long-term. He was in better shape in January than he had been before. And though he's not fighting on TV this Saturday night, and opponent Nagy Aguilera shouldn't be any problem for him, he's once again in better shape than his last fight out.
Dare I say it, I believe in Chris Arreola again.