By William Mackay: Heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (32-2, 28 KO’s) will be back in the ring on July 9th against a still to be determined opponent at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Arreola, 30, is coming off a 7th round TKO win over Kendrick Releford. Arreola is still looking to get another title shot after losing to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in a 10th round TKO loss in 2009.

Arreola then lost another fight, this time to Tomasz Adamek last year in April 2010. That fight was a wake-up call for Arreola that he needed to trim down his weight from the upper 250s to the mid 230s where he’s fighting now. The weight loss seems to have helped Arreola in terms of handspeed but it’s still too early to know how well Arreola will do once he’s put in with upper tier heavyweight competition in the future.

Some of Arreola’s power seems to have been lost with trimming down of weight. However, as we saw in his win over Releford, Arreola still have good power in his uppercut and left hook. If he connects with one of those shots against any of the top heavyweights Arreola can win.

The road ahead for Arreola will soon be a little clearer once WBA heavyweight champion David Haye retires at the end of the year. This will result in one of the Klitschkos either beating him for the title or scooping it up after he hangs up his gloves. But Arreola will at the very least get another payday in a second title shot. His chances of beating Wladimir Klitschko are pretty low, and we already saw what Vitali did to Arreola in an easy 10th round TKO win.