MASHANTUCKET, Conn. --- This “Nao Mais” stuff is getting to be a habit with Acelino Freitas. Freitas, who quit in the same ring against Diego Corrales three years ago, did it again Saturday night, turning a 12-round championship into an 8-rounder by retiring on his stool, handing his WBO belt over to Juan Diaz in their lightweight title unification fight at Foxwoods.
The unsatisfying conclusion should not diminish the accomplishment of Diaz, the young WBA champion, who used a pulverizing jab to dominate Freitas while it lasted, and might well have finished the job on his own had the Brazilian not run up the white flag.
Listen, Roberto Duran only did it once. And that night, back in Panama, they tried to burn his house down.
At least when Freitas quit against Corrales he had been floored in each of the past three rounds. This time he quit not because of the beating he had taken, but because of the one he was about to take.
Moreover, at the time of the stoppage, the fight had yet to become a runaway, at least on the scorecards of two attending judges. Dr. Clark Sammartino had Diaz up by just one point at 76-75, Glenn Feldman by two (77-75). Steve Epstein’s 79-73 was more in line with our view; the Boxing Talk scorecard had Diaz ahead 78-74.
Diaz bills himself as ‘The Baby Bull,” and for most of the night he was clearly the stronger fighter, outlanding him 222-159 and more than doubling Popo’s jab output at 58-26. Even that statistic is misleading, however, because while many of Freitas’ jabs were almost playful, Diaz’ was punishing, snapping the Brazlian’s head back on several occasions.
The aggressor throughout, Diaz drove Popo to the ropes with significant regularity. For a less gifted opponent, this could be an exercise fraught with peril, for making a an counterpuncher like Freitas fight with his back to the ropes can be like throwing Br’er Rabbit in the briar patch, but Diaz was more than equal to the task.
Freitas fought back, and landed some sneakily cute uppercuts, but Diaz – at least when he didn’t stray from his game plan – landed by far the harder shots.
“My corner kept telling me to jab, because it was effective, but my ‘inner Mexican’ kept coming out,” said Diaz. “He hit me with some clean punches, but I’d just step back a bit. I was never hurt.”
Diaz outlanded Freitas 125-56 over the last four rounds, and that includes the sixth, when he barely threw any over the final minute. A big left uppercut early in the seventh and a solid left hook later in the round were Freitas last significant punches. That round closed with Diaz landing three successive rights as Freitas leaned on the ropes.
Nobody, save perhaps Freitas himself, expected the next round to be the last one, but after Diaz used Popo for a punching bag for the better part of three minutes, it was. He opened the stanza with a left to the body and a right to the head, rocked Freitas with another right later in the round, and closed it with a crunching left hook.
Oscar Suarez, possibly to ameliorate Freitas’ embarrassment, claimed that he, and not Popo, had stopped the fight. Technically that may have been true in that it was the trainer who informed referee Mike Ortega of the Brazilian’s surrender, but when it happened, Freitas was splayed wearily across his stool, and nothing about his demeanor suggested that he was remotely interested in continuing.
“It was my decision to stop the fight,” said Suarez. “You shouldn’t let a young man get punished.”
It may have been the first time since this fight was announced that the 31 year-old Freitas had been described as “young.”
In adding his second title, the 23 year-old Diaz ran his unbeaten record to 32-0, while Freitas goes out (he didn’t exactly announce his retirement, but if he threatens to fight in these precincts again there should be a Tribal investigation) 38-2.
There was the brief threat of another Diaz-Freitas fight. Demonstrating that had not lost his sense of humor along with his self-respect, Freitas pointed across the room and predicted that his young son would be coming after Diaz some day.
“He’s almost as old as you are now,” joked Popo.
Diaz and his handlers were still celebrating in the ring when Joel Casamayor, clad in a white sport coat, pushed his way through the throng to first congratulate him and then start woofing on him. A match against the defrocked erstwhile WBC champion would be a lucrative step for Diaz (and off what we saw last night, we’d like his chances), but if he wants to hang onto the WBA belt he brought into the ring he’s first going to have to deal with a mandatory defense against the utterly useless, but nonetheless top-ranked Prawet Singwanchka, a fight that could set the whole sport back 20 years.
In addition to unifying the WBA and WBO titles (the first time in 366 world title fights we’ve covered where that precise combination has come up), the Diaz fight was in a sense for Tribal bragging right: Diaz had fought three times at the Mohegan Sun, while Saturday’s bout was Frietas’ fifth appearance at Foxwoods. (It was also the
100th fight card in the Mashhantucket Pequod casino’s 15-year history.)
As usual, Freitas (who wore trunks the color of the Brazlian flag; Diaz wore, naturally, baby blue) was drummed into the ring by a samba line of his supporters and commanded a substantial share of the audience. One wonders how they got all that face paint off so quickly, but within minutes of Freitas’ stunning retirement, it was hard to find an identifiably Brazilian fan anywhere in the casino.
In the Brazilian fans’ defense, a Foxwoods official pointed out that they seemed to take Freitas pretty well.
Probably, she was told, because they’re getting used to it.
By the time Diaz made his way to the post-fight press conference, happy little throngs were strolling through the corridors, happily singing boozy versions of “Cielito Lindo.”
“Hey,” said Diaz with a smile. “I’m just a college student from Houston, Texas. I’m a young champion -- but I still have a lot to learn.”
Back to the soccer field for you, Popo. We won’t get fooled again.
The last time we looked, Brazil wasn’t part of North America, but in the Foxwoods co-feature, Brazilian junior lightweight Agnaldo Nunes (17-1-1) retained his NABF title with a majority decision over Carlos Navarro (27-5-1) of Los Angeles. There were no knockdowns in what for the most part an evenly-matched scrap. We actually had Navarro in front after eight, (at that point the judges were split three ways) but the Californian faded down the stretch and allowed Nunes to get a nose in front. Epstein had it even at 114-114, while George Smith and Don Trella both scored it 115-113 (as did Boxing Talk).
Another young Freitas countryman, middleweight Isaac Rodrigues (2-0), was credited with another majority decision, this one over 44 year-old Hollister Elliott, a verdict booed by most non-Brazilians in the crowd. Elliott (7-19-2), a staple on the New England club fight scene for the past 22 years, fought his heart out and looked as if he might have done enough to pull it out.
Elliott was, in any case, battering Rodrigues all around the ring in the final round, but he even lost that one on the card of one judge (Frank Lombardi, who scored it 40-36.) Epstein favored Rodrigues 39-37, while Feldman had it a more sensible 38-38.
Freitas’ loss left Brazil 2-for-3 on the night, but two Russians fighting on the undercard gave that country a clean sweep.
Unbeaten heavyweight Alexei Soloviev had a tougher time than expected, but still posted a unanimous decision over bush-bearded Philadelphian Levon Warner in their six-round prelim. Although Soloviev rocked his opponent with a couple of good right hands late in the second, and again in the final round, when he caught Warner with a trio of uppercuts, he was unable to put him down. Warner didn’t help his cause when he was docked a point by referee Eddie Claudio for holding in the fifth, and Soloviev prevailed by scores of 58-55 twice (Sammartino and Trella) and 57-56 (Smith). Soloviev is now 12-0, Warner 6-4-2.
In the opening act of the evening, welterweight Rusian Provoknikov (2-0) required less than a round to blast out winless opponent Antoine Barrett (0-3). Provodnikov put Barrett through the ropes with a body shot, and while Barrett made it back into the ring, it wasn’t for long. After the Virginian took a hard one-two to the head, referee Joey Lupino stepped in at 2:33.
* * *
‘ONCE AND FOR BRAWL’
Banner Promotions/DKP
FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO
Mashantucket, Conn.
April 28, 2007
LIGHTWEIGHTS: Juan Diaz, 135, Houston, Texas TKO’d Acelino Freitas, 135, Salvador, Brazil (8) (Retains WBA and wins WBO titles)
HEAVYWEIGHTS: Alexei Soloviev, 220, Cheboksary, Russia dec. Levon Warner, 224, Philadelphia, Penn. (6)
MIDDLEWEIGHTS: Isaac Rodrigues, 158, Belen Do Para, Brazil dec. Hollister Elliott, 159, Dorchester, Mass. (4)
WELTERWEIGHTS: Rusian Provodnikov, 142, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia TKO’d Antwon Barrett, 142, Norfolk, Va. (2)
JUNIOR LIGHTWEIGHTS: Agnaldo Nunes, 129, Piracicaba, Brazil dec. Carlos Navarro, 129, Los Angeles, Calif. (12)
(ends)
FREITAS QUITS (SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?)
BY GEORGE KIMBALL
MASHANTUCKET, Conn. --- This “Nao Mais” stuff is getting to be a habit with Acelino Freitas.
Freitas, who quit in the same ring against Diego Corrales three years ago, did it again Saturday night, turning a 12-round championship into an 8-rounder by retiring on his stool, handing his WBO belt over to Juan Diaz in their lightweight title unification fight at Foxwoods.
The unsatisfying conclusion should not diminish the accomplishment of Diaz, the young WBA champion, who used a pulverizing jab to dominate Freitas while it lasted, and might well have finished the job on his own had the Brazilian not run up the white flag.
Listen, Roberto Duran only did it once. And that night, back in Panama, they tried to burn his house down.
At least when Freitas quit against Casamayor he had been floored in each of the past three rounds. This time he quit not because of the beating he had taken, but because of the one he was about to take.
Moreover, at the time of the stoppage, the fight had yet to become a runaway, at least on the scorecards of two attending judges. Dr. Clark Sammartino had Diaz up by just one point at 76-75, Glenn Feldman by two (77-75). Steve Epstein’s 79-73 was more in line with our view; the Boxing Talk scorecard had Diaz ahead 78-74.
Diaz bills himself as ‘The Baby Bull,” and for most of the night he was clearly the stronger fighter, outlanding him 222-159 and more than doubling Popo’s jab output at 58-26. Even that statistic is misleading, however, because while many of Freitas’ jabs were almost playful, Diaz’ was punishing, snapping the Brazlian’s head back on several occasions.
The aggressor throughout, Diaz drove Popo to the ropes with significant regularity. For a less gifted opponent, this could be an exercise fraught with peril, for making a an counterpuncher like Freitas fight with his back to the ropes can be like throwing Br’er Rabbit in the briar patch, but Diaz was more than equal to the task.
Freitas fought back, and landed some sneakily cute uppercuts, but Diaz – at least when he didn’t stray from his game plan – landed by far the harder shots.
“My corner kept telling me to jab, because it was effective, but my ‘inner Mexican’ kept coming out,” said Diaz. “He hit me with some clean punches, but I’d just step back a bit. I was never hurt.”
Diaz outlanded Freitas 125-56 over the last four rounds, and that includes the sixth, when he barely threw any over the final minute. A big left uppercut early in the seventh and a solid left hook later in the round were Freitas last significant punches. That round closed with Diaz landing three successive rights as Freitas leaned on the ropes.
Nobody, save perhaps Freitas himself, expected the next round to be the last one, but after Diaz used Popo for a punching bag for the better part of three minutes, it was. He opened the stanza with a left to the body and a right to the head, rocked Freitas with another right later in the round, and closed it with a crunching left hook.
Oscar Suarez, possibly to ameliorate Freitas’ embarrassment, claimed that he, and not Popo, had stopped the fight. Technically that may have been true in that it was the trainer who informed referee Mike Ortega of the Brazilian’s surrender, but when it happened, Freitas was splayed wearily across his stool, and nothing about his demeanor suggested that he was remotely interested in continuing.
“It was my decision to stop the fight,” said Suarez. “You shouldn’t let a young man get punished.”
It may have been the first time since this fight was announced that the 31 year-old Freitas had been described as “young.”
In adding his second title, the 23 year-old Diaz ran his unbeaten record to 32-0, while Freitas goes out (he didn’t exactly announce his retirement, but if he threatens to fight in these precincts again there should be a Tribal investigation) 38-2.
There was the brief threat of another Diaz-Freitas fight. Demonstrating that had not lost his sense of humor along with his self-respect, Freitas pointed across the room and predicted that his young son would be coming after Diaz some day.
“He’s almost as old as you are now,” joked Popo.
Diaz and his handlers were still celebrating in the ring when Joel Casamayor, clad in a white sport coat, pushed his way through the throng to first congratulate him and then start woofing on him. A match against the defrocked erstwhile WBC champion would be a lucrative step for Diaz (and off what we saw last night, we’d like his chances), but if he wants to hang onto the WBA belt he brought into the ring he’s first going to have to deal with a mandatory defense against the utterly useless, but nonetheless top-ranked Prawet Singwanchka, a fight that could set the whole sport back 20 years.
In addition to unifying the WBA and WBO titles (the first time in 366 world title fights we’ve covered where that precise combination has come up), the Diaz fight was in a sense for Tribal bragging right: Diaz had fought three times at the Mohegan Sun, while Saturday’s bout was Frietas’ fifth appearance at Foxwoods. (It was also the
100th fight card in the Mashhantucket Pequod casino’s 15-year history.)
As usual, Freitas (who wore trunks the color of the Brazlian flag; Diaz wore, naturally, baby blue) was drummed into the ring by a samba line of his supporters and commanded a substantial share of the audience. One wonders how they got all that face paint off so quickly, but within minutes of Freitas’ stunning retirement, it was hard to find an identifiably Brazilian fan anywhere in the casino.
In the Brazilian fans’ defense, a Foxwoods official pointed out that they seemed to take Freitas pretty well.
Probably, she was told, because they’re getting used to it.
By the time Diaz made his way to the post-fight press conference, happy little throngs were strolling through the corridors, happily singing boozy versions of “Cielito Lindo.”
“Hey,” said Diaz with a smile. “I’m just a college student from Houston, Texas. I’m a young champion -- but I still have a lot to learn.”
Back to the soccer field for you, Popo. We won’t get fooled again.
The last time we looked, Brazil wasn’t part of North America, but in the Foxwoods co-feature, Brazilian junior lightweight Agnaldo Nunes (17-1-1) retained his NABF title with a majority decision over Carlos Navarro (27-5-1) of Los Angeles. There were no knockdowns in what for the most part an evenly-matched scrap. We actually had Navarro in front after eight, (at that point the judges were split three ways) but the Californian faded down the stretch and allowed Nunes to get a nose in front. Epstein had it even at 114-114, while George Smith and Don Trella both scored it 115-113 (as did Boxing Talk).
Another young Freitas countryman, middleweight Isaac Rodrigues (2-0), was credited with another majority decision, this one over 44 year-old Hollister Elliott, a verdict booed by most non-Brazilians in the crowd. Elliott (7-19-2), a staple on the New England club fight scene for the past 22 years, fought his heart out and looked as if he might have done enough to pull it out.
Elliott was, in any case, battering Rodrigues all around the ring in the final round, but he even lost that one on the card of one judge (Frank Lombardi, who scored it 40-36.) Epstein favored Rodrigues 39-37, while Feldman had it a more sensible 38-38.
Freitas’ loss left Brazil 2-for-3 on the night, but two Russians fighting on the undercard gave that country a clean sweep.
Unbeaten heavyweight Alexei Soloviev had a tougher time than expected, but still posted a unanimous decision over bush-bearded Philadelphian Levon Warner in their six-round prelim. Although Soloviev rocked his opponent with a couple of good right hands late in the second, and again in the final round, when he caught Warner with a trio of uppercuts, he was unable to put him down. Warner didn’t help his cause when he was docked a point by referee Eddie Claudio for holding in the fifth, and Soloviev prevailed by scores of 58-55 twice (Sammartino and Trella) and 57-56 (Smith). Soloviev is now 12-0, Warner 6-4-2.
In the opening act of the evening, welterweight Rusian Provoknikov (2-0) required less than a round to blast out winless opponent Antoine Barrett (0-3). Provodnikov put Barrett through the ropes with a body shot, and while Barrett made it back into the ring, it wasn’t for long. After the Virginian took a hard one-two to the head, referee Joey Lupino stepped in at 2:33.
* * *
‘ONCE AND FOR BRAWL’
Banner Promotions/DKP
FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO
Mashantucket, Conn.
April 28, 2007
LIGHTWEIGHTS: Juan Diaz, 135, Houston, Texas TKO’d Acelino Freitas, 135, Salvador, Brazil (8) (Retains WBA and wins WBO titles)
HEAVYWEIGHTS: Alexei Soloviev, 220, Cheboksary, Russia dec. Levon Warner, 224, Philadelphia, Penn. (6)
MIDDLEWEIGHTS: Isaac Rodrigues, 158, Belen Do Para, Brazil dec. Hollister Elliott, 159, Dorchester, Mass. (4)
WELTERWEIGHTS: Rusian Provodnikov, 142, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia TKO’d Antwon Barrett, 142, Norfolk, Va. (2)
JUNIOR LIGHTWEIGHTS: Agnaldo Nunes, 129, Piracicaba, Brazil dec. Carlos Navarro, 129, Los Angeles, Calif. (12
M
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