by James Slater – As fans know, unbeaten heavyweight contender Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola is back in action this coming November 29th, when he will once again share top billing with WBO welterweight king Paul Williams. Now, according to BoxRec, it seems the 27-year-old from Riverside, California will be taking on the big man know as “Freight Train,” in the once-beaten Travis Walker. This should be some good fight..
Walker, from Houston, Texas, has been on the fringes of landing a big fight for some time now. His progress looked to have been severely damaged back in October of last year, however, when he was controversially stopped in just 15-seconds in his fight with former amateur star T.J Wilson. Never down and complaining bitterly about referee Raul Caiz’s handling of the fight afterwards, 29-year-old Walker demanded, and got, a rematch. This time it was different and “The Freight Train” ran over Wilson inside two rounds.
Since then a bad car crash further served to impede Walker’s progress, but he has recovered from the injuries he sustained in the April smash ( a separated right shoulder and minor abrasions) and has won one bout since. Now he faces his biggest challenge in the promising Arreola. A solid heavyweight who weighs-in at around the 240-pound mark, Walker is almost certainly Arreola’s most dangerous opponent yet. Possessing deceptively fast and very heavy hands, Walker has quietly gone about compiling a good 28-1-1(22) record (the draw having come against Jason Gavern in Walker’s 14th fight). Now he is on the verge of making a lot of noise.
Arreola has so far proven too much for each of his 25 pro opponents, stopping all but three of them. But he has been accused of carrying too much weight at times, and this was certainly true in his last fight, against Israel Carlos Garcia. Arreola won easily but was carrying a disturbing 258-pounds as he did so. He will have to be in much better condition for the slightly taller and very hungry Walker (Walker is 6’4.5″ Arreola 6’4″). Not only is Walker the taller man, he has a fair (5″) reach advantage, too. Make no mistake, this fight has all the makings of a tough one for the Mexican/American hope.
And Walker has proven in the past how good he is at spoiling previously unbeaten and highly touted careers. The only man to beat talented former Olympian Jason Estrada, Walker put a damaging blemish on the record of the man known as “Big Six” back in late 2006. While some would see it as a fairly big upset, the 29-year-old may well do the same thing to Arreola.
The avenged loss to T.J Wilson aside, Travis Walker has looked like the genuine article. His manager Stephen Munisteri has made the comment in the past that his fighter reminds him of 1970s big guy Ron Lyle. Somewhat similar in fighting style to Lyle, Walker has faster hands. If he can punch Chris Arreola the way Lyle was able to belt George Foreman in their classic 1976 battle, “The “Nightmare” will be living an all too real nightmare of his own.
Asking for a Foreman-Lyle type of all-out war on November 29th may be asking too much, but we just might see something not altogether a million miles away! This is the acid test for both men, and as such should be a fight well worth watching.