Chief,
I want to direct your astute attention towards boxing.
Cristobal Arreola vs. Vitali Klitschko Saturday night
The undefeated Mexican heavyweight, thats right Mexican HEAVY weight is 6/1 to win and more importantly is massive odds of near 50/1 to win by knock out in the early rounds say 3 to 6, the kid won’t go the distance but these odds for an undefeated boxer to win via knock out whom can also knock out his opponents with either hand against the overrated Klitschko must be a price to dabble with. Anyway I for one have been waiting a year for this bout, what does your boxing analyst say on this match up Chief?
giddy up
Cossy Khancoban, New South Wales, Australia
Well you never have to convince me to take a shot on an underdog especially in a heavyweight fight. I do see some very juicy odds for a Arreola KO in those early rounds. I don’t usually like to be involved in round betting, but would prefer to bet a fighter just to win by KO in any round. If you were to bet KO in rounds 3-6 and get 50-1 on each round then you have him 12.5-1 to win by KO in those rounds. It would really hurt if he were to KO Vitali late in the 2nd round or early in the 7th. I do see odds greater than 50-1 for some of those rounds and you may be able to create a “portfolio” that pays more than that 6-1 for rounds 1 thru 8. In 27 career fights, Arreola has had only one fight go to a decision (in a 6th round fight) and has never fought past the 8th round. So you can take a chance that he gets to Klitschko before round 9. Chris Arreola has a lot going for him in this fight. He is 10 years younger (however Vitali had 4 years of inactivity during a “retirement”) and he will be fighting in front of huge home crowd at Staples Center in Los Angeles, where he was born and raised. He certainly has a punchers chance, but it will be very tough and the odds seem appropriate.
I don’t think Vitali Klitschko is overrated. He has the highest percentage of knock outs of any heavyweight champion (36 KOs in 39 fights). He has never been KNOCKED DOWN in a professional fight. There are reports of Vitali getting knocked down a couple of times sparring, once in amatuers (knocked out) and a couple of times when he was a kickboxer. So if you are right it will be quite a feat for Chris Arreola. Vitali has lost only 2 fights. Both fights he lost were due to injury, a shoulder injury against Chris Byrd after the ninth round in which Klitschko dominated the scorecards. The other was after an awful cut near his eye against Lennox Lewis that was stopped after 6 rounds with Vitali ahead on all 3 scorecards. He doesn’t have a lot of impressive names on his list of victories, but no heavyweight does as the division has been void of big name fighters for years. Certainly Cristobal Arreola doesn’t have much of a resume either as he has amassed his undefeated record.
If you believe in any conspiracy or collusion in sports, you could make a case for the powers that be (the sanctioning organizations, HBO, the promoters) making a push for Arreola. A Chris Arreola win would be great for the heavyweight division and the sport of boxing. He is American and seems to have a lot of personality, which is the exact opposite of most of the fighters at the top of the division.
Another reason to bet Arreola, Vitali Klitschko appeared in studio on ESPN SportsCenter (the LA studio). He and his brother Wladimir introduced the Top 10 plays (after some lame fake arguement between the two), which included a cricket highlight and a rugby highlight. It’s not too big of a distraction or “jinx”, but I never like to see this from fighters.
