RSSAcelino Freitas
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Juan Diaz Becomes Unified Lightweight Champion
MASHANTUCKET, Conn.—World Boxing Association lightweight champion Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz added the World Boxing Organization championship to his list of accomplishments tonight after Acelino “Popo” Freitas’s trainer Oscar Suarez threw in the towel during the one-minute break between the eighth and ninth rounds at Foxwoods Resort Casino.
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Can Acelino Outbox The Bull?
This Saturday at The Foxwoods in Connecticut there will be a lightweight unification fight between WBO title holder Acelino Freitas and WBA kingpin Juan Diaz. Freitas of Brazil was a long time WBO Super Featherweight champion. He failed to win the WBO lightweight title in his first attempt when he was halted by the dangerous Diego Corrales in 2004. The now 31 year old Freitas claimed the vacated WBO crown in 2006 with a split decision over the slick Zahir Raheem.
The 23 year old Juan Diaz was born in Mexico but fights out of Houston, Texas. He is undefeated in thirty one fights and he has held the WBA version of the title since beating Lavka Kim in 2004. He has made five successful defenses. Between the two fighters their combined record is 69-1!
Continue reading "Can Acelino Outbox The Bull?"
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Freitas-Diaz Bout to Occur at Foxwoods
Promoters Art Pelullo/Banner Promotions and Don King/Don King Productions will present a sensational world title unification fight on Saturday, April 28, 2007, at Foxwoods Resort Casino, located at 39 Norwich Westerly Road in Mashantucket, Connecticut. The main event will be televised live on HBO.
WBO lightweight world champion Acelino “Popo” Freitas, 38-1 with 32 knockouts, of Salvador, Brazil, will face WBA lightweight world champion Juan “El Torito” Diaz, 31-0 with 15 knockouts, of Houston, Texas, in the main event scheduled for 12 rounds for the unified WBO-WBA lightweight championship of the world.
Both fighters are tremendous competitors with exciting styles. Freitas, now 31 years old, is more experienced at the championship level and is known for his one-punch knockout power. He is 13-1 with 9 knockouts in world championship fights and looking to win his fifth world title. He won the WBO jr. lightweight title in August, 1999, and made six successful title defenses before adding the WBA super featherweight world title in January, 2002. Freitas won the WBO lightweight title for the first time in January, 2004, and regained it in his last fight in April, 2006.
Just 23 years old, Diaz brings relentless pressure and nonstop punching to every fight. In spite of his youth, he is already 6-0 with 2 knockouts in world championship fights. Juan won the WBA world title at the age of 20 in July, 2004, and has made five successful title defenses.
An exciting undercard of supporting bouts will be announced. All bouts subject to change without notice.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
EEC - February 22, 2007
Woooooooo!
News, Notes, and Rumors:
- Lalia Ali will participate in the next edition of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars…
- Jim Lampley was sentenced to three years of probation after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of violating a restraining order. He was also was ordered to stay away from Candice Sanders as well, a continuation of the restraining order.
- Joel Casamayor was stripped of his WBC Lightweight Title for discussing a fight between himself and WBO Lightweight belt holder Acelino Freias. David Diaz has now been named the WBC champ. Strict I know…
Casamayor and his promotional company released this statement
Santa Barbara Management strongly disagrees with the decision of the WBC to strip Joel Casamayor of his Lightweight Championship. Joel won his title the way a true champion should, in the ring. He has done nothing to justify this outrageous decision by the WBC and we are considering all of our options, legal or otherwise. Joel and everyone at Santa Barbara Management would like to thank all of the fans and others within the boxing community who have phoned and emailed us to show their support.
- Reports are coming out that Nikolai Valuev will make a mandatory title defense against Ruslan Chagaev on April 14th in Germany like we previously reported. Just another reason to stay on top of us for the latest news…
- Tommy Morrison will speak in an interview after his fight tonight according to Versus…
VERSUS will have a pre-taped interview with Tommy Morrison as well as a live interview during the telecast tomorrow night as part of its VERSUS Fight Night in collaboration with Top Rank Boxing at 9 p.m. ET from the Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort in Chester, West Virginia.
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Thursday, February 01, 2007
EEC - February 1, 2007
Your morning boxing news coming at ya…
News, Notes, and Rumors:
- The Milburn family of Windsor, Ontario has donated a pair of Joe Louis’ gloves that he used in his historic battle with Max Schmeling in 1936 to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The Milburn family originally received the gloves from relatives who were close with Louis’ long time manager.
- WBC President Jose Sulaiman thinks that it’s time for Erik Morales to hang up the gloves…
“When someone loses hunger, he loses the desire to win,” Sulaiman said. “I think fighters lose the motivation to get up at 4 a.m. in the morning and go running, and the motivation to go on a diet. And I believe in that regard, Erik has not taken care of himself. He put himself through inhuman levels to lose weight, and he has picked the best to fight with the least amount of conditioning, and that is why he is in the situation that he is.”
Sulaiman also thinks that Morales needs one last fight…
“But my opinion is that he wants to retire with a victory, and he believes he can win the championship at lightweight. Erik doesn’t want to go out a loser in the way that he lost against Manny Pacquiao. He doesn’t want to go out in the minds of the people thinking of him on the canvas. So there are two motivations for him: his fourth world title and his leaving boxing with a different image for fans who’ve seen him for so many years.”
What does this all mean? Since Joel Casamayor will fight Acelino Freitas, that leaves David Diaz open for Morales’ taking. Look for a WBC Lightweight Title fight in either March or April…
- Floyd Mayweather Jr’s advisor, Leonard Ellerbe, has told The Las Vegas Review-Journal that Freddie Roach’s training methods aren’t going to have an impact on the fight between Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya:
“Oscar had two chances to win this fight, slim and none, and slim just left town when he hired Freddie,” Ellerbe said. “I have a lot of respect for Freddie as a great trainer, but to compare Freddie Roach as a trainer to Mayweather Sr. is like comparing (Manu) Ginobili to Kobe Bryant.”
- Manny Pacquiao has not yet decided whether or not he wants to run for mayor of his hometown or for a seat in the House of Representatives in the Phillipines.
Some Good Reads:
FOX Sports: The big time has called Kelly Pavlik
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Friday, January 19, 2007
EEC - January 19, 2007
Not much news at all yesterday so today’s post will be a little shorter than usual if you don’t mind…
News, Notes, and Rumors:
- As we reported yesterday, Don King has found a home in Florida for his February 3rd ‘Super Saturday’ card that will be broadcast on Showtime…
- Ricky Hatton was actually asked to be on the reality show Big Brother this past year but he promptly declined:
“It took me three seconds to turn down Big Brother. I could not stand being in a house for a month with people saying, ‘Ricky, your cup is not on the coaster or you’ve not done the washing up’. Those people are just faking it to get votes and that’s not me.”
- Rumors circulated yesterday that Acelino Freitas was not fighting Joel Casamayor and that he was instead taking on David Diaz in April. Freitas quickly took it upon himself to clear things up announcing that will be fighting Casamayor, making the fight all but official instead close to being done.
- Lou Savarese defeated Travis Fulton last night in the fourth round when the referee was forced to stop the fight and save Fulton from a further beating. Savarese dropped Fulton three times in the second round and twice more in the fourth before the referee decided that Fulton had enough.
- I wasn’t able to find anything on the results of Ricco Rodriguez’s bout but when I do I’ll be sure to make note of it on here…
Weekend Fights:
Friday -
Randall Bailey vs Michael Warrick - Key West, Florida - Junior Welterweight
Juan Manuel Lopez vs Cuahtemoc Vargas - Phoenix, Arizona - Junior Featherweight (Showtime)
Saturday -
Ricky Hatton vs Juan Urango - Las Vegas, Nevada - IBF Junior Welterweight Title
Jose Luis Castillo vs Herman Ngoudjo - Las Vegas, Nevada - WBC Junior Welterweight Eliminator
Nikolai Valuev vs Jameel McCline - Basel, Switzerland - WBA Heavyweight Title
Junior Witter vs Arturo Morua - London, England - WBC Junior Welterweight Title
Sunday -
Danny Green vs Paul Murdoch - Melbourne, Australia - Light-Heavyweight
Some Good Reads:
ESPN: Hatton’s at the weight where he feels great
TSS: This Day in History (January 19, 1991)
MaxBoxing: ‘The British are Coming, the British are Coming - For Ricky Hatton!!!
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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
EEC - January 16, 2007
On the heels of Tommy Morrison testing negative, we have Mayweather and Hopkins speaking up, George Foreman traveling, the return of a former heavyweight champion, the pro boxing debut of a former UFC heavyweight champ, a major fight announcement and much more…
News, Notes, and Rumors:
- What is it about English fighters that people find so intriguing? I mean really, if you followed this site over the summer, you would see how much media coverage both Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe got. They were always calling out the big names, always changing their minds about who they wanted to fight.
These days it’s the exact opposite with the elite American fighters wanting a piece of them.
Bernard Hopkins has shown interest in Calzaghe, hoping that he will move up a weight-class and fight him later this year:
“After Jones I hope he’ll come up to light-heavyweight to challenge me.” said Hopkins.
Calzaghe also met with Sylvester Stallone this past weekend at a boxing gala event as Stallone was making a trip over to the UK and Calzaghe was one of the people he wanted to meet the most.
Calzaghe said of the meeting with the famed Movie star:,“Sly was great. He’s just a normal guy. He turned up for the dinner by himself. There was no entourage. He said he wanted to meet me after seeing my recent win against Jeff Lacy. He said he was a fan of mine and had seen me fight many times but I told him I had seen him fight a lot more in the movies.”
Calzaghe added: “I value Sly’s opinion. He’s in great nick for a man of 60. He has the body of a 30-year-old. It was great to hear him tell us about Hollywood.”
Apparently calling out Floyd Mayweather Jr. 1000 times is going to pay off for Hatton as Pretty Boy Floyd will be ringside for his fight this weekend against Juan Urango. Even better, he’s going there because of him…
“I’m looking forward to getting an up close and personal look at Hatton so that I can make my mind up on whether I might want to fight him.” explained Mayweather.
- Former heavyweight champion Lou Savarese will continue his comeback this Thursday when he takes on MMA veteran Travis Fulton in an event promoted by himself and his business partner Cameron Park.
- On the same card as Savarese and Fulton, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriguez will be makig his pro boxing debut.
- DRL Promotions has announced that WBC Lightweight Champion Joel Casamayor will defend his title in a rematch against Acelino Freitas. Freitas won the first fight between the two in 2002 by a close split decision in a fight that Casamayor would have won if he didn’t have two points deducted during the fight for illegal blows.
There is no date set for the fight as of yet but it is expected to be televised on HBO…
- George Foreman is reportedly traveling to the Middle East to promote his famous George Foreman Grill machines. He will be visiting the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai to do an expo on his product.
Some Good Reads:
The Sweet Science: Looking Forward To More In The New Year: Part II; Brooklyn southpaw Luis Collazo is ready for Pomona’s Sugar Shane
Eastside Boxing: Big Name Heavyweights James Toney Could Still Defeat
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Monday, January 15, 2007
EEC: January 15, 2007
As you probably noticed by the lack of posts yesterday, it was a pretty slow day in the boxing world. Even so, I still think I found some interesting tidbits to share with everyone…
News, Notes, and Rumors:
- Floyd Mayweather Sr. told the Grand Rapids Press this past weekend that there still isn’t a deal in place for him to train Oscar De La Hoya for the May 5th mega-fight against his son, Floyd Jr.
What’s the most amazing thing about all of this? Mayweather Sr. hasn’t signed a deal to train Oscar yet not because his is unsure whether or not he wants to train De La Hoya against his own son, but rather because he wants $2 Million because the figh purse is so high. Remarkable…
- This weekend is highlighted by three big fights, one of which isn’t being televised. It’s a heavyweight title bout of all things. I realize that Nikolai Valuev and Jameel McCline might not put on that great of a fight, but the ramifications are still huge for the division and boxing itself.
- Joel Casamayor’s next opponent is said to be down to two canidates: Juan Diaz and Acelino Freitas
- Jermain Taylor’s next title defense may happen on the weekend of April 21 in Atlantic City to coincide with the annual Boxing Writers Association of America dinner which always has a big boxing match take place the day after. So far no possible opponents have been thrown out there…
- Rising Star Delvin Rodriguez has signed with Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing according to ESPN. Rodriguez’s manager says the contract is a three-year deal with has multiple extension options based on Rodriguez’s performance in the ring. Rodriguez became a free agent last week after voiding his contract with Northeast Promotions. Don King and Golden Boy Promotions also made offers but were turned down surprisingly.
Some Good Reads:
Some pimpage is in order for The Sweet Science and their daily This Day in History post which has become a daily routine for me.
So what did happen today in history?
On this day in 1983, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) declared that boxing should be banned in all civilized countries.
The notion of banning boxing was discussed even during the sport’s golden age. However, this was the first occasion that the American Medical Association (AMA) had made such a statement. George D. Lundberg, the editor of JAMA, cited the high prevalence of brain damage in professional boxers who have had a substantial number of fights as part of the basis of the AMA’s position.
Since then, other medical organizations have supported this position and the AMA and Lundberg have revisited this issue several times since 1983. An argument could be made that the initial report helped lead to some boxing reforms, such as shorter fights and quicker referee stoppages.
However, it is highly unlikely that boxing will ever be banned in the United States.
Some other nice articles for you…
Doghouse Boxing: A View from the Galaxy: The Road Back for Antonio Tarver
Maxboxing: No More in 2007
Boxing Scene: Jose Luis Castillo: Such Is Life
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Thursday, October 26, 2006
Report: Freitas May Unretire for Casamayor
The Supersport Zone is reporting that recently retired WBO Lightweight Champion Acelino Freitas may return to the ring for a unification bout against newly crowned WBC Lightweight titlist Joel Casamayor.
Freitas announced his retirement from boxing earlier this month…
The WBO has told Freitas that he has until Monday to reach a decision as to whether or not he will retire or continue fighting.
Freitas and Casamayor previously fought in 2002 - Freitas won by unanimous decision in a controversial fight that many thought went to Casamayor by a fairly large margin.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Acelino Freitas Announces Retirement
WBO Lightweight Champion Acelino Freitas announced his retirement late Tuesday night. The 30-year-old Freitas also held the WBO Super Featherweight title from 1999-2003 until giving up the belt so he could move up to a higher weight class.
Retiring with a 38-1 record, Freitas said he wants to continue his career as a promoter as well helping with charity projects in his native country of Brazil.