Alan Massengale reports from the heated final presser for the anticipated heavyweight crossroads bout between Chris Arreola and Seth Mitchell, who fight on Saturday on Showtime. Massengale spoke to both Arreola and Mitchell.

LOS ANGELES — Seth Mitchell set the tone and Chris Arreola ran with it at Wednesday’s heated final press conference for their heavyweight crossroads match on Saturday at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, Calif.

Mitchell (26-1-1, 19 knockouts), a former college football player who started boxing in his mid-20s, brought up the trash talking Arreola and Arreola’s trainer, Henry Ramirez, have aimed at him since their Showtime-televised fight was made a month and half ago when it was his turn at the podium.

The Maryland resident, who is coming off a unanimous decision over Jonathon Banks in June which avenged the second-round knockout he suffered to Banks last November, let Arreola know that he wouldn’t partake in the insults but would be coming to fight on Saturday.

“I don’t talk trash on Twitter like Chris Arreola and his trainer,” Mitchell said. “I respect him but at the same time, I don’t see anything special in Arreola.

“Everytime he steps up, he loses. Come Saturday night he knows he’s going to be in a fight.”

Arreola (35-3, 30 KOs), who lives in Riverside, Calif., was stopped in 10 rounds by WBC titleholder Vitali Klitschko in 2009. He dropped a majority decision to Tomasz Adamek in 2010, and in his last bout, he lost a unanimous decision to Bermane Stiverne, who scored a knockdown and broke Arreola’s nose during the fight.

Arreola admits to not having trained properly for Adamek and Stiverne, but he says he’s put the work in for Mitchell, who he believes is not in his class.

“You say I’ve lost everytime I stepped up but you got to realize that I’m not stepping up by fighting you, I’m stepping down,” Arreola told Mitchell when it was his turn behind the podium.

“I respect (Mitchell’s) stamina and his power, but his boxing skills? Please! I’m a boxer. I’ve been doing this since I was 7 years old. I’m not some football player who got into boxing because he wasn’t good enough to make the NFL.

“I’m going to make him fight for every second of every minute of every round.

“You f___ed up trying to fight me,” Arreola said directly to Mitchell. “Bermane Stiverne is up here. Tomasz Adamek is up here. Vitali Klitschko is way up here. You’re down there, bro.”

The two heavyweights engaged in a heated staredown after the presser.

Arreola continued to curse and insult his opponent.

“Bring your f___king football helmet,” he said.

Doug Fischer contributed to this report

Photos / Gene Blevins – Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions