By Rick Reeno
Acelino Freitas made his grand to the ring for the first time since getting stopped by Diego Corrales earlier in the year. He took an opponent who was thrown in there to give Freitas a big knockout victory. Fernando David Saucedo was the opponent and the Freitas camp wanted to make sure that they picked a guy who would not give Acelino any trouble, Saucedo sports a 16-4-2 record with 0 Knockouts!
The bout took place in Freitas' backyard of Brazil. When you handpick a poor opponent you end up with a poor bout. From reports we were able to get from ringside observers, it was Saucedo running for his life and Freitas chasing for the entire fight. Saucedo held like John Ruiz and ran like a leopard. The referee took a point from Saucedo in round 8 for excessive holding, but he continued to hold anyway.
Saucedo got caught with a Freitas left in the 9th round and went down, he beat the count and finished up the fight as he did not allow Freitas to follow up. Unanimous decision scores of 100-88, 100-87 and 100-86.
Freitas exercised a rematch clause to face Diego Corrales after his loss and took this bout as a tune up for the rematch. It appears that Freitas is still avoiding the rematch "he" requested with Corrales as his promoter told the Brazilian press that he will face Julio Diaz, April 24th, 2005 on HBO.
Diaz holds the IBF's version of the lightweight title and does not pack the power punch of Diego Corrales. Diaz was on a bright road until he was defeated by an already fading Angel Manfredy by way of a split decision on HBO in 2001. There was some that thought he won the fight, but it made no difference as he was stopped in one round by journeyman Juan Valunzuela a few fights later. Since then, Diaz has had big wins over Courtney Burton, Ernesto Zepeda and Javier Jauregui.
It makes for an interesting fight, should Freitas win the bout he could set up a title unification match with Corrales. Should Freitas lose the bout, his stock will drop to very dangerous levels.
