By Chris Williams: Heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (28-1, 25 KO’s) needs to beat Tomasz Adamek (41-1, 27 KO’s) this Saturday night if he wants to get another title shot in the near future. This bout is very important for Arreola. He was dominated by World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in a 10th round stoppage last year in September, and he can no longer afford to get beaten if he wants to stay in the running for another good payday, this one likely against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.

If he wants to win on Saturday, Arreola will have to figure out how to deal with the movement from Adamek, a 6’1” former light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion. Adamek will have a big advantage in speed and maneuverability compared to Arreola. In the past, Arreola has been good at cutting off the ring against fighters that tried to run from him.

However, Arreola is going to have to be a lot better on Saturday because Adamek is especially good at getting around in the ring and will be changing directions constantly to avoid Arreola’s attacks. Adamek wants to fight on his terms and choose when and where he makes his attacks. If you’re a patient fighter, it won’t matter how much circling in the ring that Adamek does, eventually he will come to Arreola when he wants to try and land something.

All Arreola has to do is wait and punch with Adamek and he’ll beat him in that way. However, Arreola has been talking about wanting to come into this fight as light as possible so that he’ll have a better chance at chasing Adamek down and forcing him to fight. I think this is a mistake. Adamek is good at fighting going backwards and if Arreola goes after him all night long like he did against Vitali Klitschko, Arreola is going to get picked apart by Adamek.

It doesn’t pay to go after a skilled runner like Adamek. Some fighters it works to go after them, but not a fighter like Adamek, because he’s really good at landing on the run and taking advantage of his opponents when they’re coming after him. I think Arreola will be smart enough to wait on Adamek and catch him when he comes forward to land his own shots. Adamek isn’t all that fast now that he’s moved up in weight from the cruiserweight division.

Adamek has put on a massive amount of weight in the past four years, putting on 46 pounds. That’s too much weight if you ask me and its showing itself by his lack of power at heavyweight. I think he’s going to have problems once the bombs start flying from Arreola and I see him getting taken out by the 8th, possibly sooner.