Chris Arreola gets serious for a last run at elusive heavyweight title

One of the most endearing qualities of Chris Arreola's oversized personality has to be the heavyweight fighter's brutally honest assessment of his own shortcomings and failures.

Arreola seems incapable of sloughing off blame to someone or something else. Thus he is well aware of why, at age 34, despite having raw power few in his weight class can match, he is still chasing his first heavyweight title.

"Pete Rose once told me, after my loss against (Vitali) Klitschko, that it took him three tries to win his first World Series," Arreola told Paste BN Sports. "That always resonated and stuck in my head. And this is my third run (at a title), man. I got to make it count. Because there's not going to be another. And I know that. . . . And I have to win in convincing fashion Saturday so I can earn it."

Arreola (36-4-1, 31 KOs) should have a sizable audience for Saturday's fight, a 10-round heavyweight bout against Travis Kauffman (30-1, 22 KOs), the co-feature of Premier Boxing Champions on NBC (8:30 p.m. ET) at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. The main event has former lightweight champion Omar Figueroa Jr. meeting veteran Antonio DeMarco in a 10-round battle at 140 pounds.

Arreola has come into so many fights out of shape and unready to fight that it would be a joke for the Mexican-American brawler from Riverside, Calif., if it weren't so serious.

This time, he swears it's different, and recent photos of him bear that out. He's spent the last six weeks "grinding" at high altitude in Big Bear, Calif

"I'm at easily the low 240s, or 239 (pounds) right now," the 6-3 Arreola said. "When you're at Big Bear you really have to work hard so you can get in good boxing shape, because at Big Bear there's no oxygen. There's no fricking air. I wasn't crying for water, I wanted air."

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Arreola offers one mea culpa after another when discussing his career and training methods, or lack thereof.

"Absolutely, and it showed, not a little but a lot," he said of coming into fights out of shape and unprepared. "I'm my own worst critic. I'm dumb to think I'm just going in there to fight with two weeks of training.

"But not this time, man. I'm not going to do that anymore. I can't do that to my career and I can't do that to myself because my daughter's a teenager now, and I want her to give it her all while she's training - she plays softball - but how am I going to tell her to give her all while I'm over here half-assing my training?"

Arreola considers this a must-win fight if he's ever going to find his holy grail, a championship strap.

"Especially (because of) my last performance, it was horrendous. I looked like straight crap (a draw vs. Fred Kassi) against an opposition I'm supposed to knock out," he said.

"But I'm the dummy that didn't put the work in. (Trainer) Henry (Ramirez) waited for me every day at the boxing gym. What did you expect, for him to pick me up every day at my house? No, man. I'm a professional. I should conduct myself like a professional and I haven't done that in the past. But not in this training camp. That's why I told Henry I wanted to get out (of Riverside) and go to Big Bear. And put the time in."

Arreola, nicknamed "The Nightmare," is nothing if not a warrior. He fought for nine rounds against former champion Bermane Stiverne with a broken nose. Two of his four career losses have been to Stiverne, the last a sixth-round TKO in 2014. He also lost to a smaller Tomas Adamek five years ago by majority decision.

"Adamek was just moving and moving and moving, and that's exactly what I'm expecting from Travis Kauffman," Arreola said. "Kauffman is a very good boxer and that's why I'm taking this fight very, very seriously. . . . That being said, I know why he took this fight. He wanted to fight me because he wants to make a name out of my name. He wants to use me as a steppingstone.

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"In his past fights he's fought nothing but bums. Daddy picked all his fights. The best fighter they put him up against was Tony Grano, and Grano put him on his (butt). And I know I'm better than Tony Grano. That being said, he motivated me. I appreciate him lighting a fire under my butt because I needed it. I need competition. I need fighters like him.

"No offense to my past opponents, but I didn't get ready for all of them. I didn't prepare like I was supposed to. But that's my fault. That's the knock on me and it's deserved."

Asked when he thought he might corral that elusive title shot, Arreola turned philosophical.

"Ah, that's for you guys, the writers, and analysts, to decide. My job is to fight," he said. "My main motivation right now is to beat Travis Kauffman. That's all I want to do is beat his butt and embarrass him.

"I'm the Grinch and I'm going to steal his Christmas."

Photo by Francisco Perez, PBC