“When Acelino Freitas knocks out Zahir Raheem this Saturday he is right back at the top and the first fight I’ll wanna make is with Manny Pacquiao,” – so says Freitas’s promoter Art Pelullo.
Cutting an animated figure, Pelullo admits he is particularly fond of Freitas, the Brazilian power-puncher he discovered on his 1997 “Boxcino” Latin television series. “I’m very close with Acelino,” he said. “I’ve been with him nine years, I’ve stayed at his house, we’re business partners in Brazil together – you’re not supposed to fall in love with fighters but, hey…”
Banner Promotions boss Pelullo is excited because this Saturday at the Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, Freitas has a chance to redeem himself following his August 2004 defeat to Deigo Corrales. In that fight, Freitas elected to box and move rather than use the power which he traded on for much of his double world title winning career and, almost inevitably, was cornered and stopped by ‘Chico’ when he ran out of gas.
It was the lone defeat of an otherwise impressive career but ridiculous assertions that ‘Popo’ – dropped in the eighth, ninth and finally tenth rounds – somehow “quit” continue to dog him to this day.
“This fight with Raheem means redemption for Acelino Freitas,” his promoter said. “If he’d stayed down when Corrales dropped him in round eight no one would have said anything (derogatory) but he got up and fought and fought until he had nothing left and so instead he gets criticized.
