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January 2002
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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AN AUDIENCE WITH THE POPO KO King Acelino Freitas was raised living on the streets of Brazil, but says that his wildman days are over and that now he is more dedicated than ever before to knocking out opponents. FIONA MANNING reports |
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FREITAS became the first Brazilian in 25 years to hold a regarded version of the world championship when he destroyed Alexandrov
- Get Big Pic It takes a brave man to talk openly about what gives him strength. It takes an even braver man to publicly state that being breast fed by his mother until the age of five gives him the astonishing knockout power that WBO junior lightweight champion Acelino 'Popo' Freitas has displayed in his 30-0, 29 KOs career. Not many fighters with a reputation for first-round knockouts would walk around with a nickname like 'Popo' either. Popo, apparently, is Brazilian slang for the sound babies make while suckling their mother’s breast. It would take an even braver person to laugh in the face of the serious, stone-faced Freitas as he relates the origins of his deprived background and boxing ring name. After five false dawns, Freitas will finally face his WBA counterpart, Joel Casamayor, in a unification showdown on 12 January. 'This is the biggest fight of my career and I know it,' said Freitas. 'It’s also the most important fight of Casamayor’s career and I hope he’s ready for me, because I know I’m going to be ready for him.' Freitas’s mettle, strength and KO ratio will be put to the test against Casamayor when the two face-off at Las Vegas’s Cox Pavilion. In this long-anticipated bout for the two undefeated champions, it is perhaps Freitas who has more to lose. It’s not that he can’t win. In Vegas parlance, this fight is considered 'pick ’em'. What Freitas has to prove however, is that he can handle the big time after detaching himself from another breast of sorts: his long time manager and benefactor, high-flying Mexican businessman and boxing manager Ricardo Maldonado. Freitas and Maldonado, once as close as father and son, have been embroiled in an international law suit that ensued when Freitas abruptly left Maldonado and signed with Banner Promotions-despite the fact that Freitas’s contract with Maldonado was still active. Maldonado has an eye for talent: his star client is Marco Antonio Barrera. Nothing prepared Maldonado, however, for the problems he has faced with Freitas, whom he discovered when Freitas at the time was literally living on the streets. A successful Brazilian amateur with a record of 81 (78-3) fights, who had scrabbled up through the ranks to win the Brazilian championship, Freitas was living hard times. Maldonado signed up the fighter when the two had to speak via translators - Maldonado speaks Spanish and a small amount of English. Freitas spoke only Portuguese and no English or Spanish. The fighter signed a seven-year contract with Maldonado and was given a home to live in and a career to look forward to-including a promotional contract with Maldonado’s long time associate, Frank Warren. Freitas, who grew up poor in the Brazilian city of Salvador and spent his childhood years sleeping on the floor, suddenly had everything that comes with championship boxing fame: money, girls, TV shows, billboard ads, cars, girls . . . and oh yeah, he managed to knock out each and every one of his opponents. When Freitas won the WBO title, he became the first Brazilian fighter to win a regarded form of world title in 24 years. The last Brazilian world champion, Miguel De Oliveira, of Sao Paulo, won the WBC 154-pound title in May 1975, and lost it six months later. Freitas was born during De Oliveira’s title reign. For Freitas, whose poverty-stricken beginnings were never far from his mind, being the darling of Brazil was a new and special thrill. 'I was 14 when I first started boxing and I loved the effect I had on people,' said Freitas. 'I always want to knock out my opponents.' Freitas successfully defended his WBO crown six times when, according to Maldonado, the 26-year-old fighter’s head was turned. Maldonado claimed: 'Acelino wasn’t training properly earlier this year. He was enjoying the success. He was partying hard and he would be the first to admit his mind was not on his training. 'He kept assuring me everything was fine, but I knew he was very overweight and I had to pull him out of his first scheduled bout with Casamayor, last May.' Things got worse. Maldonado heard that Freitas was signing with Art Pelullo of Banner Promotions, but Freitas assured him the rumours were false. 'He told me: ‘I’m not signing with Pelullo!’ and next thing I know there’s a press release from Pelullo announcing that he had signed Acelino,' said Maldonado. None of the parties, including promoter Warren, whom Maldonado claims sided with Freitas, will talk about the vicious legal struggle which ensued. But the matter was eventually settled and Freitas went to Coachella, an oven-hot desert city outside Palm Springs, California, to train for a non-title fight in September with shopworn former flyweight champ Alfred Kotey, of Ghana. Sharing the same Spartan gym facilities where trainer Lee Espinoza trains local hotties Antonio Diaz and Julio Diaz, Freitas found a new family of sorts. He had no problem making the 130lbs limit, but he was taken the distance for the first and only time in his career by Kotey when they fought at Miccosukee Indian Gaming Casino in Miami, last time out. Freitas loved his reputation as being the only current world champion with a perfect KO record. He didn’t like seeing that proud record vanish. It was also the first time he suffered serious hand injuries in a fight. In fact, initial on-air reports stated that Freitas had broken his hand. He hadn’t, but the damage was done as far as a certain Cuban fighter was concerned. On the same bill was Freitas’s proposed foe, Casamayor, who sized up Freitas and decided the WBO champ was overrated. To Casamayor’s way of thinking, Freitas would be easy pickings. Casamayor has since publicly attacked Freitas. Firstly because of his lacklustre performance against Kotey, then for the on-again-off-again match between him and Freitas. Freitas, who recently married, kissed his wife a temporary farewell in October, then changed his self-admitted 'sloppy' training routine. Having renewed his acquaintance with Oscar Suarez-who also trains Prince Naseem Hamed-Freitas has knuckled down to some serious conditioning. 'He looks amazing,' said Suarez, literally ecstatic at Freitas’s current state. 'He’s walking around at 136, 137, which is dead on target. Look how healthy he is. He knows he is in good shape. When he’s like this, he glows.' Freitas agrees. 'To be honest, the way Casamayor talks about me has really been bothering me, but I really should thank him because his big mouth has made me so mad I am in the gym constantly,' said Freitas via translations from Suarez and assistant trainer Ray Rodriguez. 'I am in the best fighting shape I’ve ever been in. 'Casamayor talks and talks and I am going to stop all that talk. I will shut his mouth with my fist! Let him talk now because after the fight there will be nothing he has to say.' Freitas, famous for his speed, punching power and straight-forward aggressiveness admits Casamayor will be his toughest opponent to date. 'I won’t deny I haven’t fought anyone like him, but I’m still going to knock him out,' said Freitas, who has been preparing for Casamayor by running in the desert hills at high altitude. 'I find the harsh conditions invigorating. I go running in the mornings when it is cold,' he said. 'The high altitude of the mountains here are perfect for my conditioning. During the day it is blisteringly hot and I’m in the gym training during the day, where it’s so hot, it’s unbelievable.' While Casamayor insists Freitas is likely to pull out of their fight again, Freitas insists he will be there. 'Tell him not to worry,' said Freitas. 'I have no intention of pulling out of the fight, like he’s been telling people. 'Casamayor is unfinished business and I will take care of him. He won’t know what hit him when I see him in the ring at Cox Pavilion.' Suarez is very happy with Freitas’s attitude, in and out of the gym. 'He’s the most mellow guy,' he said. 'I’ve never worked with anyone who is so contained, so mentally healthy and calm. He’s very, very focused.' Freitas dreams of bringing his brother Luis Claudio-also a professional boxer-to Coachella. He wants to share his new-found strength and happiness. Freitas is learning English and Spanish-in smatterings-at the gym, but he keeps a low profile. There’s not only no place to party in Coachella, but Suarez wouldn’t stand for it. Not that Freitas is trying to trip the light fantastic. His new work ethic keeps his thoughts on the job in hand-Joel Casamayor. |
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