By Luis Sandoval

Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola will return to the big stage and HBO when he takes on Bermane Stiverne in a WBC Heavyweight final eliminator bout. Arreola has been on a long comeback trail to the top as he’s quietly paid his dues and has once again positioned himself for his goal of attaining a Heavyweight world title.

Stiverne poses a tough challenge for Arreola but the Mexican Heavyweight is going into this fight extremely confident and is promising an impressive and dominant victory.

“Expect the same thing from Chris but a lean, mean, fighting machine that's going to come in and is going to destroy Stiverne. I'm going to destroy him man. I'm going to make sure people talk about that fight and talk about me for the next days coming. And everybody, all my fans will be proud of me again” said Arreola.

The always candid Arreola understands this is a make or break year for him where he can’t afford any more setbacks. Not only does he plan to come out victorious, but he feels he’ll score a knockout victory.

“It'll be a knockout within 7 or 8 rounds. And I'm not disrespecting Stiverne but that's what I believe. And if he believes he can knock me out, I encourage it. I hope he thinks he's going to knock me out and I hope he comes in trying to knock me out because then we know we have a fight. I don't get disrespected if he says he's going to knock me out because we all know the truth” declared the Riverside, CA native.

Despite his boastful knockout prediction, Chris still expects Stiverne to be one of the tougher tests of his career. In fact, he thinks Stiverne will be tougher than Tomaz Adamek who Arreola lost to in 2010.

“I'm expecting a tougher fight than Tomasz Adamek. I hate that I lost to Tomasz. It pisses me off and I hate saying his freaking name but I'm expecting a tough fight. [Stiverne] throws a lot of combinations. I know he's not going to be scared and I know he doesn't have any ring rust. I know he has a strong punch so I got to be real prepared and ready and be on my P's and Q's. I'm going to bring him a lot of pressure and I'm going to give him a lot of angles that he didn't think he'd see out of me. So hopefully he'll be ready” Arreola would tell BoxingScene.

Arreola is extremely excited to be back in the ring as reoccurring injuries and postponements caused him to have an inactive 2012. It will be over a year since Chris has fought when he steps in the ring March 9th but he doesn’t expect ring rust to be a problem.

You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter @truewet007. You can also tune in to Boxingscene’s official audio show The Boxing Lab every Tuesday from 6-8PM PST with host Ernest Gabion, Luis Sandoval, and Ryan Burton.