By Eric Thomas: This Friday night on ESPN2, 30-year-old heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (31-2, 27 KO’s) will be back in action against journeyman Kendrick Releford (22-14-2, 10 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Reno Events Center, in Reno, Nevada. Arreola is making a quick return to the ring after stopping 2nd tier heavyweight Nagy Aguilera in the 3rd round on May 14th.

Arreola, ranked # 2 WBC, #5 IBF, #13 WBO and #15 WBA, is trying to keep active to keep his weight low. In his last fight, Arreola weighed 234 lbs, the lowest weight for Arreola in the past four years. Arreola had been coming into his fights weighing in the neighborhood of the 250s since 2009. However, he’s really gotten serious about his weight and is looking a lot better in the past two fights weigh-wise. But Arreola’s power seems to have taken a hit with all the weight he’s lost, because he didn’t seem nearly as powerful in his last bout as he’s been in the past.

Arreola is showing more speed and an ability to throw a lot of punches, but the cost seems to be a drop in power. It’s a trade off, really. For Arreola to have more power, he’s got to carry around more weight and for him that means more fat. When he takes the weight off, as he’s done recently, his power drops off. It won’t matter against the journeyman Releford whether Arreola has lost strength, because Releford isn’t a dangerous fighter or someone that will really test Arreola.

Releford lost his last fight to Luis Ortiz a year ago, a fighter who had a 2-0 record going into the Releford fight. That tells you that Arreola has nothing to worry about in this fight. Arreola has won his last three fights since losing a 12 round majority decision to Tomasz Adamek in April 2010. Arreola has gotten his act together since then, but it’s still unknown whether Arreola can beat the better fighters in the division, because he’s facing really weak guys right now.

Also on Friday’s Arreola-Releford card will be a heavyweight match between Tony Thompson (35-2, 23 KO’s) vs. Maurice Harris (24-14-2, 10 KO’s) in an IBF Heavyweight Title Eliminator for #2 Spot. Thompson should win this fight without too many problems. Thompson has last four fights since being stopped in the 11th round by IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko three years ago in 2008.