By Sean McDaniel: There will be a press conference on February 19th, presumably to announce to fight between heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (28-1, 25 KO’s) and Tomasz Adamek (40-1, 27 KO’s) at the Citizen’s Bank Arena in Ontario, California.

The fight between the two top contenders will be taking place on April 24th, in the same location. Arreola, 28, fought against World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko last year, losing a 10th round stoppage in September.

Arreola fought his heart out but just wasn’t able to get beyond the 6’7” Klitschko’s long reach. But in the case of his fight against the 6’1” Adamek in April, the 6’4” Arreola shouldn’t have problems being able to land his punches. The only question here is whether Arreola will have the speed needed to catch up to the quicker Adamek.

In his recent 12 round decision win over Jason Estrada in February, he showed a great deal of movement as he circled the ring for 12 rounds trying to avoid the light shots from Estrada. For the most part, Adamek dominated the fight, but he looked very unsteady in the last three rounds of the fight, especially after getting hit with a big looping right hand from Estrada in the 10th.

Adamek was on his bike during the last rounds, and had a hunted look. In the end, Adamek won the fight by the scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 118-110, but it wasn’t the kind of performance that Adamek needed to make boxing fans think that he’ll be any kind of test for one of the heavyweight champions. Arreola isn’t a champion, but he might still be good enough to take Adamek out if he can catch up to him and land a big right hand.

Adamek, judging from his fight against Estrada, won’t make it easy for Arreola by staying on the move and using an in and out style to keep from taking Arreola’s big shots. This could work well enough for Adamek to earn a decision, but he’s likely going to take a lot of punishment along the way. Adamek doesn’t have the height and long upper body that Vitali Klitschko has to keep out of the way of Arreola’s big shots, so I imagine that he’s going to hammer Adamek with more than a few monstrous shots in the 12 rounds of action.

Adamek, who came into the Estrada fight weighing a career high of 220, didn’t look light on his feet for the weight. He moved well enough to get the win, but not well enough where he’ll be able to avoid the punishing shots from a huge heavyweight like Arreola for 12 rounds. Adamek is obviously gambling that his speed and boxing ability will enable him to win a decision over the slower Arreola.

It’s easy to see what Adamek might be thinking when looking at Arreola, as the American fighter isn’t very fast with his hands or feet and looks to be more than a little overweight at 250+. But Arreola’s speed is deceiving. He’s quicker than a lot of people give him credit for, and his persistence to get to his opponent enables him to make up for what he lacks in hand speed.

Additionally, Arreola has a great chin. He took Klitschko’s best shots all night long and was never remotely hurt. Facing the 220 pound Adamek, who didn’t carry his power up with him from the cruiserweight division, will be a lot easier for Arreola than what he dealt with against Klitschko.