By Lem Satterfield

For the first time in recent memory, Pawel Wolak found himself somewhat on the defensive.

The 28-year-old, Mount Arlington, N.J., resident was facing an aging warrior in Baltimore's Ishmail Arvin, a wily veteran whose chicanery forced the younger man to fight in retreat.

"It was a little bit of a different fight than I was used to, because, usually, I'm the one who is putting the pressure on," said the Polish-born Wolak, referring to January's eight-round, junior middleweight match up at The WaMu Theatre in New York's Madison Square Garden.

"Usually, I'm the one dictating the fight. But this time, I had to take a step back a little bit," said Wolak. "Ishmail was in good shape, and he was able to put some pressure on me. So I had to use my jab, and box a little bit more."

Wolak made the adjustments and did just that, earning an eight-round, unanimous decision that improved his overall record to 26-1, with 17 knockouts and dropped the 34-year-old Arvin to 15-2-4, with seven knockouts.

It was Wolak's fifth straight victory during a run that has included three knockouts since losing to Ishe Smith in August of 2008 by 10-round, unanimous decision.

Arvin had ended a 17-month layoff to take this fight against Wolak, an in-the-trenches, in-your-face brawler who attacks the head and body while also being able to absorb punishment.

"I was trying to box more and to not be predictable, but the guy was really tough," said Wolak, who won, 80-72, on one card, and, 79-73, on the other two judges' cards. "I was really looking to do more counter-punches, move to the side, and go body-head, body-head and box well."

Wolak will enter the ring, yet again, on Saturday night, this time, at The new Yankees Stadium on the undercard of a main event featuring WBA junior middleweight champion, Yuri Foreman (28-0, eight KOs) against former three-time titlist, Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KOs).

Wolak is being match opposite Irish-born, James Moore (17-2, 10 KOs), a New York resident with a massive local following.

Moore is coming off of May's six-round, unanimous decision victory over Joseph De los Santos, which helped him to rebound from a 10-round unanimous decision loss to Foreman in December of 2008.

"I'm a Polish-American, obviously, and I was born there and moved to America when I was 10. The whole thing about being Polish is that our men are very, very proud. Being Polish, it's all about fighting and there's a lot of pride there," said Wolak.

"On Saturday night, it's going to be the culmination of a fight that's been in the works for a long time. It's sort of a clash of cultures between the Polish and the Irish. We both like to work hard, and you can see that with the Irish. They value their fighters who go at it. There will definitely be that cultural significance," said Wolak.

"I expect there to be a roudy crowd for him, and there should be a roudy crowd for me," said Wolak. "But, you know, my style is more like a Mano-A-Mano mentality. I like to engage and to fight to the best of my ability and to fight my heart out at all times."

Arvin's style was to be a potent puncher. But amazingly, there were times during the fight when Wolak used upper body movement that caused the older man to miss.

"I watched the fight afterward and had a little different impression of how I performed on the night of the fight," said Wolak, who caused swelling beneath each of Arvin's eyes. "I was happy that I was letting my hands go a lot, throwing three-, and, four-punch combinations, up and down and slipping very well and not getting hit back."

From the fifth round on, Wolak's steady pressure punching began to wear on Arvin, whose head was often driven backward from combinations.

"I'm still working on attacking the head, attacking the body, and not getting hit back," said Wolak. "I'm still improving, and I'm far from done getting better, and, I'm looking forwawrd to demonstrating that to everyone on Saturday."

Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor at AOL FanHouse and the news editor at BoxingScene.com.