Boxer uses humble past to forge ahead

Chris Arreola loves sneakers. When he buys a pair, he doesn’t buy only one. He gets one for his daughter, his little brother and his little sister. Even when they don’t need sneakers, he still buys them new pairs.

“I didn’t realize, but it’s because when I was a kid I had one pair of shoes to last me through the whole year,” Arreola said. “Now, when I get sneakers, my daughter gets sneakers, my brother gets sneakers, my little sister gets sneakers and they have, like, closets full of sneakers.”

Arreola, a heavyweight boxer, comes from humble beginnings. His father and mother immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico in the 1970s. He grew up having very little, and he doesn’t want his daughter and younger siblings to grow up the same way. Through boxing, he has been able to achieve that.

“That’s my reward of boxing,” said Arreola, 26. “I want to give my family, my daughter everything I didn’t have.”

On Saturday, Arreola will put his 20-0 record (18 knockouts) on the line when he takes on Derek Berry (12-8-1, 5), a former sparring partner, at the Home Depot Center on the undercard of the Antonio Margarito-Paul Williams fight.

Ever since he beat Sedreck Fields in 2005, Arreola -- an imposing figure at 6 feet 4 and 230 pounds nicknamed “Nightmare” -- has been ascending the heavyweight ranks. Many around the sport consider him a serious contender in the division, which, because of his Mexican heritage, makes him a rarity of sorts.

Arreola grew up in “Big, bad EasLos,” as he called it, one of six children. He lived in Huntington Park, going to boxing gyms with his father, Augustin, an amateur boxer.

Augustin was very tough on him. His mother, on the other hand, was supportive. Both personalities shine through like a flashlight in the dark.

When he was a kid, Arreola came home one day and told his father that he had joined the gang “La Florencia,” one of the toughest in Los Angeles. His father punched him and asked him to repeat what he said. He then “whooped” Arreola until he said he wasn’t in a gang.

“He made a point that I wasn’t going to be a gang member,” Arreola said. “I was young, dumb and just wanted to fit with all my friends and cousins and stuff. I’m glad my dad whooped [me] for that. And for many other things I’ve done.”

When he’s in the ring, Arreola displays his father’s characteristics. Outside of the ring, that’s his mother, Lucy Rivera.

Arreola, who as a teenager moved to Riverside with his mother after his parents divorced, is based out of Riverside’s Lincoln Boxing Club. During a workout there Monday, Arreola joked and talked with the other boxers while he loosened up.

Then he climbed into the ring to work on body combinations. As the sounds of his punches landing echoed through the gym, most of the activity there ground to a halt as everyone stopped to watch.

“Once you really get to know him, he’s funny. A big kid,” his trainer and friend Henry Ramirez said. “But inside that ring, he does what he has to do and he does it with bad intentions.”

Those bad intentions originate from thoughts of his opponents keeping him from being able to provide for his family.

When he gets into the ring, the first thing he will do is look for his 5-year-old daughter, Danae, in the stands. When he finds her, something inside of him clicks.

“I see her, then see the other guy. And, it’s this guy that’s trying to take food out of my daughter’s mouth,” Arreola said. “He wants me to go home injured and basically, he really wants to kill me.

“I do everything for my daughter. I gotta make it home, I gotta bring her food and I gotta keep clothes on her back. I gotta win.”

And not that he needs more motivation, but his next opponent is providing plenty of it.

Berry, a 39-year-old journeyman from Pomona, has been saying that he knows how to beat Arreola. Berry goes as far as saying he is going to humiliate his former sparring partner by knocking him out.

“And I really don’t appreciate that,” Arreola said. “I’ve put money in his pocket and he is going to bad-mouth me and say that he is going to do this and that to me?

“It’s a little bit personal.”

Which it always should be, Arreola said.

“But after [the fight], if he wants to have a beer with me, I don’t mind,” he said before breaking into laughter. “As long as he buys.”

Arreola spent some of last weekend on a bit of a media tour, first at the Galaxy game for the pregame coin toss Saturday and then at the Dodgers game Sunday to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Arreola’s camp has done a fair amount of interviews before, but never like this.

“I tell Chris, we’ve come a long way,” Ramirez said. “We’re nowhere near being done, but we’ve come a long way from you turning pro in Laughlin in 2003 and you making $600 for your first couple of fights.”

Now he makes five-figure paydays, which allows him to help his family financially -- and pay for those new sneakers.

It’s el Sueno Americano, the American Dream, says Arreola, who has a tattoo of the Statue of Liberty draped in the American flag on his right forearm.

“I never thought this would happen. Especially not at heavyweight,” Arreola said. “It’s pretty mind-blowing, and it’s pretty rewarding. All those years that I went to the gym when I was kid and I didn’t want to, it all pays off.”

jaime.cardenas@latimes.com

--

Fight facts

Saturday’s card begins at 5:30 p.m. at Home Depot Center in Carson:

MAIN EVENT

* WBO welterweight title fight:

Antonio Margarito (34-4, 1 NC, 24 KOs)

vs. Paul Williams (32-0, 24 KOs).

FEATURED UNDERCARD

* Super-middleweight: Andre Ward

(12-0, seven KOs) vs.

Francisco Diaz (16-1-0, 8 KOs).

* Heavyweight: Chris Arreola (20-0,

18 KOs) vs. Derek Berry (12-8-1, 5 KOs).