World Boxing Council champion Vitali Klitschko has reached a deal to defend his crown in Los Angeles on September 26 against unbeaten American Cristobal Arreola, ESPN reported Wednesday.
Confirmation is expected to come next week in a news conference at the Staples Center, where German-based Ukrainian Klitschko lost to British champion Lennox Lewis in 2003 and defeated South African Corrie Sanders in 2004.
Klitschko, 37-2 with 36 knockouts, had been in talks for a fight with David Haye but the Englishman made a deal last month to fight Russian giant Nikolay Valuev, the World Boxing Association champion, in Germany in November.
That spurred Klitschko, whose brother Wladimir owns the International Boxing Federation heavyweight crown, into facing Arreola, Klitschko manager Bernd Boente and Arreola trainer Henry Ramirez told ESPN.
Arreola, 27-0 with 24 knockouts, will fight before a hometown crowd, living only 45 minutes away in suburban Riverside. He knocked out countryman Jameel McCline in the fourth round in April in his most recent bout.
Klitschko, 10 years older than his opponent at age 38, makes the second defence of the title he won in 2008 after ending a four-year layoff with an eighth-round stoppage of Nigerian Samuel Peter.
Last March, Klitschko stopped Cuba's Juan Carlos Gomez in the ninth round in Germany to keep the crown.
