Vitali Klitschko retained his WBC world heavyweight title with a convincing ten-round stoppage of Cris Arreola in Los Angeles.
Ukrainian dominates American in LA to retain WBC title
Vitali Klitschko retained his WBC world heavyweight title with a convincing ten-round stoppage of Cris Arreola in Los Angeles.
The Ukrainian stepped into the ring for the third time since ending his four-year retirement almost a year ago, and he made no mistake in wracking up a 37th stoppage of his professional career.
Klitschko advanced onto 38-2 after outclassing the game Arreola throughout the fight and using his height and reach advantage to great effect as he brought to an end a 27-fight unbeaten run.
The 38-year-old champion was back fighting in the USA for the first time since defeating Britain's Danny Williams in 2004 and in the same arena in which he was stopped by Lennox Lewis due to a cut in 2003.
Dictating the pace throughout the contest, Klitschko outclassed the 28-year-old Mexican-American by snubbing out his initial work rate using his height and reach advantage.
Go forward
Arreola kept the champion busy with his go forward style but took a lot of punches in the process and despite a brief rally in the eight round, was never in with a chance of victory.
Two more clinical rounds from Klitschko sealed his fate and at the end of the 10th his corner decided enough was enough and referee Jon Schorle waved the fight off, reducing the beaten man to tears in the process.
"It's never easy," said Klitschko, who won every round on the judges' scorecards. "You have to be at your best. Arreola had his chance, he had a great performance and I was very surprised.
"He had a great chin and after my right hook, many opponents go to the floor but he still stayed up. Big respect.
"All my left jabs he was very well prepared for.
"I'm 38, I'm not the youngest in the heavyweight division and I don't want to break the record of George Foreman (who won the heavyweight title at 45) but I feel very good and I feel like I'm 25."
Tears
A tearful Arreola apologised to his fans in LA before admitting that he was outthought and outfought by the Ukrainian.
"I worked my butt off to be the champion but Vitali's strong, he hits hard and I never wanted to quit. That's never in me, I wanted to go the full 12 rounds.
"I couldn't get to him, he was fighting the fight he was supposed to fight. He ran when he was supposed to and I just couldn't get to him.
"Whatever I did he found a way to counteract that. He found a way to win and I found a way to lose."
