Boxing Chatter: Arreola Meets Tann

In a fight card loaded with heavyweights Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola meets big Malcolm Tann after former 2004 Olympian Devin Vargas pulled out of a bout scheduled for 10 rounds at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas on Friday.

The fight will televised by Showtime and is promoted by Goossen-Tutor Promotions.

Arreola (19-0, 17 KOs) has busted out of the local venues and has been featured on back-to-back televised fight cards. Tann has two losses but has never been knocked out and has been calling out Arreola for more than two years. He finally gets his wish and hopes to regain contender status in the heavyweight division.

“I don’t care who I fight. It doesn’t matter to me,” said Arreola, who is ranked 24th in the world according to the IBO computer rankings. “There’s no fighter that I would say I don’t want to fight.”

The Riverside-based Arreola says that he’s faced big punching heavyweights and when asked his main attribute he points to his chin.

“Of course I don’t want to get hit,” Arreola said.

As a young heavyweight Arreola sparred with Wladimir Klitschko and remembers that day as a tremendous eye-opener.

“Klitschko hit me with a left hook that hurt me more than any other fighter since that day,” Arreola remembers. “After that I didn’t want to get hit with that punch again. But it made me realize how far I had to go.”

And it was Hasim Rahman who showed him what kind of preparation is needed to fight at the elite level.

“Rahman trained like a madman,” said Arreola, who served as a sparring partner for Rahman while he prepared for his title fight with Oleg Maskaev. “After watching him train I realized I had to step it up.”

Now Arreola faces Tann who’s been chasing him the last two years.

“It doesn’t matter who I fight,” Arreola said.

Also on the fight card will be the slick fighting and undefeated Eddie Chambers (28-0) who faces his biggest test in former title challenger Dominick Guinn (28-4-1) who needs a win to move back to the top.

A third heavyweight fight features Malik Scott (27-0) attempting to maintain his record spotless against veteran Charles Shufford.

MGM fight card

Another boxing card takes place on Friday in Las Vegas. East L.A.’s Francisco “Panchito” Bojado returns to the ring after an almost three-year absence at the MGM on Friday. It will be televised by Telefutura.

Bojado returns as a junior welterweight and faces Dario Esalas from New York who’s lost five of his last six bouts. The last time Panchito fought it was a loss to Jesse James Leija who has retired. That’s no embarrassment. Leija was one of the master boxers of his day. Now Panchito just wants to clear the spider webs from his gloves.

If you’ve been watching the HBO 24/7 documentary of Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather’s promotion, that is Bojado sparring with his fellow East L.A. native. Both De La Hoya and Bojado attended Garfield High School and are former Garfield Bulldogs.

Gatti returns

Main Events announced Arturo “Thunder” Gatti (40-8, 31 KOs) will meet former Contender reality star Alfonso Gomez (16-3-2, 7 KOs) at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on July 14.

It figures to be a pretty intense fight between two guys that like to move forward and can box too.

Gomez of Whittier won his last bout against Martin Concepcion on March 30 in a battle between Contenders from the USA and Contenders from the United Kingdom.

Gatti’s last fight was a loss suffered to Carlos Baldomir on July 2006. The New Jersey resident is a former junior lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight world titleholder.

Return of Yory Boy Campas

Mexico’s popular Yory Boy Campas fights on Friday in Miami, Florida against Eromosele Albert in a super middleweight contest.

Campas (88-9, 72 KOs) fights Albert a fast-moving Nigerian who fights out of Miami. The Mexican bomber lost his last fight against Irish John Duddy by decision in a 12-round bout for the IBA middleweight title.

Though he’s slower than ever, Campas still packs big power in either hand.

Wendy Rodriguez set for Germany fight

Junior flyweight champion Wendy Rodriguez will be fighting Germany’s Regina Halmich who hasn’t lost a fight in more than seven years.

Rodriguez travels to meet Halmich on June 2.

Manfredo back

Peter Manfredo Jr. is back in the ring on May 11 against Ted Muller at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

The Contender star was really given the shaft in his fight against Joe Calzaghe last month when the referee stopped the fight early. That was definitely poor officiating.

Now Manfredo wants revenge.

“I’m going to beat Muller and move on from there, stated Manfredo. “then I want to fight Jeff Lacy.”