By Johnny Walker
Mexican American heavyweight Cristobal Arreola was shaken by a hard right hand tonight in the first round of a scheduled 12-round bout with Eric Molina at the American Bank Center, Corpus Christi, Texas, United States.
And that was just what the doctor ordered.
Arreola (35-2-0) responded to the shot by backing Molina into the ropes with a flurry of body and head shots, finally nailing his opponent with a hard right to the temple and stopping him at 2:30 of round number one.
With the win, Arreola stays on track to possibly fight World heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko later this year in America.
Admitting he was on “spaghetti legs,” after absorbing Molina’s right hand, Arreola said that the shot woke him up.
“I like getting hit. Once I get hit, the fight’s on,” Arreola said in an interview with Showtime’s Jim Gray after the fight.
But Arreola was just getting started.
As the interview was drawing to an end, Arreola suddenly directed a profane outburst at veteran fight promoter Don King.
“I always said I wanted to meet Don King,” said Arreola, apropos of nothing in particular.
“But now that I want to say that Don King is a f*cking asshole and a racist.”
King has made some questionable racial remarks of late: for example, saying that David Haye “was afraid to hit a white man in Germany” when Haye fought Wladimir Klitschko last year.
Exactly what Arreola was specifically referring to with this remark, however, is unclear at this time.
