By Sammy Rozenberg
In the heart of Connecticut, at the Foxwoods Resort and Casino, two fighters battled for respect. In the end, neither man looked pretty, but Acelino Freitas was able to sway two of the judges into scoring the fight in his favor. Many ringside observers in the crowd felt Raheem may have won a close fight, but because there so many close rounds, not many complained about the final call. The scores were 115-113 for Freitas, 115-113 for Raheem and 116--12 for Freitas. Freitas captures the vacant WBO lightweight title with the win.
The bout was close, not the most exciting contest, but the hundreds of Brazilian fans in attendance were chanting so loud for Freitas that it probably made other fans think they were at the Super Bowl.
Freitas started off as the early aggressor, using his power to back Raheem off, of course it did not take long for Raheem to battle back. The reflexes of Raheem and quick movements gave Freitas plenty of problems down the stretch.
There was a sense of urgency from Freitas in the final two rounds, as he dramatically picked up the pace and began walking Raheem down with hard punches. The final two rounds gave Freitas the decision as he hustled in big way to win them. Neither fighter was able to get off well as their styles of coming in to throw punches resulted in a voluminous amount of clinches. There were several occasion that both men fell the floor from wrestling around on the inside. Raheem did an extraordinary amount of holding, a factor that could of resulting in him losing some of the rounds with the judges.
The lightweight division is wide open and Acelino Freitas should now be considered a major threat in the division. Many insiders felt Freitas would never recover from his crushing defeat to Diego Corrales last year. Freitas was winning the fight on the scorecards, but suddenly quit in the final quarter of the twelve round stanza after getting up from his third knockdown in the bout. Freitas proved the experts wrong by coming back and getting name back near the top of the lightweight division.
Diego Corrales, the WBC champion, is set to face Jose Luis Castillo in June. Freitas would have a better chance of facing Corrales regardless of the outcome since Castillo has already made it perfectly clear that he is moving up to 140 pounds after the bout.
Even if Corrales loses the fight, a rematch with Freitas would be very marketable as their initial meeting was an exciting contest. Psychologically, it would be very interesting to see how Freitas would react in the ring with the man that battered him bad enough to make him quit.
The "Baby Bull" Juan Diaz, keeper of the WBA strap, is certainly an option. Diaz has the skills, a very high punch output, but lacks power in his punches - which could make the fight attractive to take. The unattractive thing about Diaz is the amount of money he may bring to the ring. Although he holds the WBA lightweight title, Diaz is still a work in progress and slowly building his name in the sport. Those factors make Diaz an unlikely opponent in the near future.
The IBF trinket held by Jesus Chavez could prove to be the best matchup for Freitas. Chavez does not possess the quickest reflexes and likes to fight on the inside, which would play right into the hands of Freitas. Chavez has been in the lightweight division for a long time, only fighting once against the late Leavander Johnson. Mentally, Chavez may not have recovered from the beating he gave Leavander Johnson, which caused the injuries that ended his life. The death of Johnson may still weigh heavy on the mind of Chavez, affecting his abilities in the ring.
The management of Freitas needs to keep him busy against top caliber opponents if they want him to regain some of the respect he lost with Corrales loss. He still has a long road ahead of him, but the first stage of the journey is complete.
On the undercard:
Andre Ward (9-0, 5KOs), who won gold at the 2004 Olympics, stopped undefeated Andy Kolle (9-1, 7KOs) after 6 rounds. Both fighters started out throwing punches early, however Ward really turned up the pressure especially in the later rounds of the fight. Ward was able to land the cleaner punches causing swelling the eyes of Kolle, which prompted the referee, Johnny Callas to stop the fight before the seventh round could begin
Alonzo Butler (22-0-1, 17KOs) stopped Zach Page (10-7, 4KO's) within five rounds. Page hit the canvas three times before the referee stopped the contest.
Junior welterweight Luciano Silva (7-1, 4KOs), scored a six round unanimous decision over Deon Nash (5-2, 1KOs). The scores were 58-56 on all of the three scorecards.
In a junior welterweight contest, Carmelito DeJesus (4-0, 3KOs) stopped Darrell Crenshaw (1-5, 1KOs) after two rounds. Crenshaw was unable to come out for the third round.
Vincent Arroyo (5-0, 3KOs) won a unanimous four round decision over John Lipscomb (2-2-1) in a junior welterweight contest. The scores were 40-36 on all three cards.
