Andre Ward, Arthur Abraham and Chris Arreola Hold Press Conference in Southern California

Added on Mar 31, 2011 by Brian Blake in

Boxing

Showtime Championship Boxing’s Super Six World Boxing Classic officially kicks off the semi-finals round on May 14 when Oakland, California’s WBA Super Middleweight Champion Andre “S.O.G” Ward defends his title against European superstar and former middleweight title holder Arthur Abraham at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA.

In addition to the 12 round main event, hard hitting heavyweight Chris Arreola of Los Angeles will seek his third consecutive win when he takes on Dominican born journeyman Nagy Aguilera in a ten round co-featured bout.

Tournament favorite Andre Ward remained unbeaten while upping his record to 23-0 with 13 knockouts last November when he left the Oracle Arena with a very lopsided unanimous decision victory over the durable Sakio Bika. He now looks to carry that momentum into his upcoming bout with Abraham.

“In my preparation I’m probably giving him more respect than he deserves. My job is to put him away from the opening bell. My job is to make him feel the same way he felt right after the Carl Froch fight as soon as possible,” said Ward.

Prior to his tune-up bout earlier this year, Arthur Abraham was dealt just the second loss of his career in November when Carl Froch gave the Armenian born former champ more than he could handle as Froch earned a much easier than expected unanimous decision win. Froch was awarded the vacant WBC Super Middleweight Championship after two of the three ringside judges had the bout scored a 12 round shutout for the Nottingham fighter while a third judges found a single round to give to Abraham.

Abraham, who was available to the attending media via satellite, was all about moving on from his defeat to Froch and taking care of business when he travels to the United States. “I don’t want to speak about what went wrong in the past. I want to focus on Andre. I will use my heart, my fists, my body and my hands to defeat Andre.”

The winner of the upcoming Ward and Abraham title bout will advance to the finals as they take on the winner of June’s clash between WBC champ Carl Froch and Glen Johnson.

Also on hand at the Sisley Italian Kitchen in Sherman Oaks was local heavyweight hero Chris Arreola to help promote his upcoming bout against Aguilera. Arreola turned pro in late 2003 and over the next six years amassed 27 consecutive wins with all but two coming by way of knockout. The Mexican slugger positioned himself for a crack at the title against Ukranian giant Vitali Klitschko.

In front of his hometown crowd at the Staples Center in Los Angeles referee Jon Schorle called a halt to the bout after ten rounds as he deemed the challenger no longer able to continue. Following his first loss Arreola immediately returned to the ring scoring a fourth round TKO against Brian Minto.

The celebration was short lived as he suffered the second setback of his career when he dropped a majority decision to the popular Tomasz Adamek after 12 rounds back in April of last year. Since the setback he has put together two straight wins and looks to make it three when he enters the squared circle to take on Nagy Aguilera.

“The main thing with being 30 years old is you only have a little window of opportunity and it’s time for me to do it. I let everyone down when I showed a lack of dedication to the sport and I look forward to showing myself again,” claims Arreola.

One of the toughest opponents that Arreola faces, both in and out of the ring is himself. His conditioning has been a thing of constant scrutiny heading into each and every one of his bouts.

Promoter Dan Goossen elaborates: “I always thought the fight with Chris was more outside the ring than inside the ring. You have to be dedicated and willing to push yourself. I wanted everyone to see Chris with their own eyes, not to tell you in a press release. This is the new Chris Arreola.”

Time will tell what the new Chris Arreola is capable of and how far he goes. Maybe one day the fans in Southern California will see their heavyweight hopeful claim a world title.

But for now, they’ll be able to keep themselves entertained with fellow Californian Andre Ward and the title he hopes to keep in their very state when he takes on the always dangerous Arthur Abraham.