by James Slater – Dan Rafael over at ESPN.com has confirmed how exciting heavyweight contender Chris Arreola will face fellow Mexican/American, Manuel Quezada on August 13th in Ontario, California. 29-year-old Arreola, coming off a disappointing April points loss to former cruiserweight titlist Tomasz Adamek, badly needs an impressive win if he’s to make people believe once again that he can become a world ruler.
Quezada, the older man by three years at age 32, also needs a win; having been upset last time out, when he lost on points to Jason Gavern, also in April.. Promoter Dan Goossen looks after both fighters, and he informed ESPN.com how he sees the fight as a big opportunity for both men – for Arreola to get back to proving his worth, and for Quezada to score the upset. Goossen also suggested the August winner could perhaps face Adamek next (in what would be a return match in the case of “The Nightmare.”)
“This fight is an opportunity for Cris to jump back into the thick of things with a win,” Goossen said to ESPN.com today. “And this is something Quezada has been asking for for quite a while. He’s been asking to fight Cris.”
The fight, a possible thriller-in-the-making, will go out live on ESPN 2, whereas Arreola has been used to fighting on the bigger HBO network lately. Make no mistake, if Arreola, 28-2(25) comes unstuck or even struggles to look good against the 29-5(18) Quezada, his career will really be in a lot of trouble. But will the hard-hitting, entertaining slugger have any trouble disposing of Quezada?
The older man can bang, as he perhaps proved most impressively when he took out common opponent Travis Walker inside a single round back in the summer of last year (Walker, of course, managed to deck Arreola before being stopped in the 3rd-round in November of 2008). But can Quezada take a great shot? True, Quezada has only been stopped in one of his four pro defeats – by a guy named Dennis Weaver, who TKO’d him in the 2nd-round back in 2003 – but has he ever faced as hard a hitter as the man he will be swapping punches with in a little over a month’s time? No.
Another big question pertaining to this fight, though, is Arreola’s conditioning. Will Arreola, who had an admittedly poor camp ahead of the Adamek fight, be in top-top shape on August 13th? With as much at stake as there is, he had better be.
It would be an upset if Quezada were to beat Arreola (joining Adamek and Vitali Klitschko); X3 if he did it by stoppage. However, if a fighter is not in top fighting shape, anything can happen. To my mind, this fight and what happens in it, is down to Arreola.
Quezada will come out swinging, and the action could be something special for a few rounds (perhaps a little like Arreola’s short battle with Walker) – but Arreola, the taller, heavier and harder-hitting fighter, will eventually get the KO. I go for the fan-favourite to win inside four lively rounds.