Goossen: Tyson, Arreola similar

Now that heavyweight contender Chris Arreola finally has started to train the way a world-class fighter should, his promoter is boasting big about what Arreola can bring to the ring.

This past Tuesday, at an Arreola workout at Warzone Boxing Club in Rancho Cucamonga, promoter Dan Goossen was so stoked about the way Arreola looks, he might have gotten a bit carried away in his assessment of Arreola.

“I was talking to the guys with HBO today about it,” Goossen said of Arreola, who Saturday will take on Bermane Stiverne of Canada in a title-elimination bout at Citizens Business Bank Arena (on HBO). “I was saying that he’s a guy that single-handedly can bring the excitement back into the heavyweight division. Why? Because he’s got all the elements that Mike Tyson had, OK? You wanted to see a Tyson fight to see how he could destroy someone, and Arreola’s that type of fighter.
“You know you’re not going to see him jabbing and countering. He’s going to go out there and just look to fight hard. He’s going to look to go out there and knock you out. That’s what the fans want to see. That’s what gets their juices going.”

Goossen went deeper.

“And then you throw in the other side of the coin, where Tyson had that personality where you never knew what was coming out of his mouth; he’d say some outrageous things,” Goossen said. “Well, you never know what’s going to come out of Chris’s mouth; he also says outrageous things.
“You’ve got a very similar parallel to those two guys and I just believe now Chris has that state of maturity that he knows he’s gotta look like this to be able to compete with anybody in the heavyweight division.”

Arreola, 32, is 35-2 with 30 knockouts. Stiverne, 34, is 22-1-1 with 20 knockouts.

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