By Jim Dower: Photo credit: Craig Bennett/Goossen Tutor Promotions: Former heavyweight challenger Chris Arroela (29-2, 25 KO’s) weighed in at a chunky looking 249 lbs for his scheduled 10 round fight on Friday night against Joey Abell (27-4, 26 KO’s) at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, California. For his part, Abell weighed in at 236.6 and looked in good shape. Arreola, 29, can ill afford to lose this fight if he wants to remain relevant in the heavyweight division.

Arreola has lost two out of his last four fights and has battled both hand injuries and constant weight problems for the past couple of years. Both of the problems have severely limited Arreola’s success inside the ring to the point where he’s really in a must win situation on Friday. The good news is that Abell isn’t in the same league as Arreola in terms of power and talent. The bad news is that it might not matter if Arreola looks as sloppy and fat as he’s been looking and if his problematic hand injuries start causing him problems again.

Arreola won his last fight last year, beating Manuel Quezada by a 12 round decision in August. Before that, Arreola lost a 12 round decision to Tomasz Adamek in April. That was a really disappointing defeat for Arreola, because he had the talent and the power to beat Adamek if he had come in better shape and if he didn’t suffer another injury to his right hand. Arreola was easily beaten by WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in a 10th round stoppage loss in September 2009. That was a much better version of Arreola that was beaten by Adamek. Unfortunately, Arreola was out of his league in that fight and really never stood a chance against the towering 6’7″ Vitali.