Despite his 38 years, Vitali Klitschko remains firmly in control of the heavyweight division after battering brave but outgunned challenger Chris Arreola for ten rounds last night to retain the WBC title at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Arreola stuck to his game plan of coming forward in the attempt to take away the towering champion's reach advantage but for a big man, Klitschko has excellent footwork, reflexes and boxing skills, nullifying almost everything the challenger could offer.

Using a pole axe-like jab, Klitschko made Arreola pay for each foot gained into enemy territory and on many occasions, the champ's very hard right hand followed in combination to great effect.

Arreola's main problem early on was he could not land anything of substance. That changed a bit in the middle rounds but Klitschko proved to be able to take Arreola's heavy artillery on the occasion when it connected and also punish the Californian afterward for his troubles.

Klitschko regained control by the seventh before brutally stamping out the courageous surge of Arreola in the eighth.

The challenger was spent by the ninth but never stopped trying against his far larger adversary. Things began to look grim for Arreola in the tenth as Klitschko was in superb form and rarely missed with his complete arsenal.

The bout was called off before the start of the 11th to save Arreola from absorbing more punishment in what had become a lost cause.

Vitali Klitschko wins his sixth straight contest to improve to 38-2 (37), retaining the WBC belt for the fourth time while Chris Arreola suffers his first career loss to fall to 27-1 (24).

On the undercard, lightweight John Molina, 18-0 (14), stopped Efren Hinojosa, 30-7-1 (17), in the first and heavyweight Johnathon Banks, 22-1 (15), posted an eight round majority decision over Javier Mora, 22-5-1 (18).

Heavyweight Cedric Boswell, 31-1 (24), outpointed Cisse Salife, 23-15-2 (21), over eight rounds.

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Boxing News Tags: Boxing Results, Carlos Zarate, Cristobal Arreola, Erik Morales, Gabriel Ruelas, Humberto Gonzalez, Julio Cesar Chavez, Pipino Cuevas, Rafael Ruelas, Ruben Olivares, Vitali Klitschko