FREITAS-RAHEEM: AT THE CROSSROADS

April 21, 2006 - by Nat Gottlieb

Their careers have taken radically different paths, yet suddenly they find themselves converging at the same point in time at a crossroad akin to a log bridging water between banks. One will continue on, the other will wind up treading water, which in boxing is about as bad as drowning.

Acelino Freitas. Zahir Raheem. A year apart in age, 30-29, but worlds apart in every other way. Using those names in the same sentence would have been unthinkable just a year ago. Freitas (37-1, 32 KOs) is a two-time world champion who has won 11 of 12 championship fights, and is as wildly popular in his home country of Brazil as Manny Pacquiao is in the Phillipines, maybe more so. When Freitas fought and beat Joel Casamayor in a title reunification fight in 2002, 50 million people watched it on TV, which was broadcast live at 3 a.m. Brazilian time. His wedding to wife Eliana was televised nationally and drew record ratings. Not surprisingly, Freitas is a multimillionaire.

Raheem (27-1, 16 KOs) is a career underachiever who will be fighting in just his first title bout when he meets Freitas on April 29 at the Foxwoods Resort on HBO's "Boxing After Dark" series. When Raheem, at the age of 19, left his hometown Philadelphia and entered the 1996 Olympics, he was more highly-regarded by many than his close friend Floyd Mayweather Jr. It was a team that also included future world champions Antonio Tarver, Fernando Vargas, David Reid, David Diaz and Eric Morel. Raheem lost his match on a first round TKO, and that Olympic appearance would mark the last time he was considered a top fighter until last year. While the mercurial Mayweather came out of the gate running as a pro, and has a highlight film that runs as long as "Titanic," Raheem, in a career spanning 10 years and 28 fights has only 36 precious minutes to show off, his stunning dominance over Mexican great Erik Morales in his last fight on Sept. 10, 2005. That fight boosted his WBO ranking and got him this shot at a vacant title against the top-ranked contender. Unlike Freitas, Zahir Raheem is not rich, maybe not even upper middle class. His largest payday was the $200,000 he got for the Morales fight, a pittance in a co-feature on pay-per-view.

Raheem is also not wildly popular anywhere, not even in Philadelphia -- and certainly not with promoters, who have shunned him because he is a high risk boxer who is very difficult to both beat and look good at it doing it, a poor man's Winky Wright.

Stylistically these two fighters have nothing in common. Raheem is a pure boxer, very polished, very smart in the ring and has a superb defense. Rarely does he display any power. Freitas has decent boxing skills and an improving defense, but his reputation was made as a power-packing fighter with furious fists. Pain is his game.

Freitas burst on the scene in Brazil in 1995 with a tremendously aggressive, exciting style that saw him knock out every one of his first 29 opponents, seven in world championship fights. The bouts averaged a mere 2.6 rounds. His life story only added to his growing legend. Although he had reached the top, he had started at life's very bottom, a rare escapee from extreme poverty. In his native city of El Salvador, his entire family of eight lived in one room, with Freitas sleeping on the sandy floor. In fact, Freitas did not even sleep in a bed until he was 17. So poor was the Freitas family that his mother breast-fed him until he was five because there was not enough food to go around. His fight nickname, "Popo," is a Portuguese term describing the sucking sound an infant makes nursing. Like Brazilian soccer legend Pele, Freitas is known in his country only as Popo. In fact, if you asked a Brazilian who Acelino Freitas was, most would not know. Say Popo, and eyes light up.

Yet make no mistake about it, despite all their numerous differences, both fighters share a common thread that almost guarantees this should be an exciting fight. The profits of a victory on April 29 have very little to do with purse money. Both know the true value here is the crucial impact this fight will have on their careers, whether winning or losing.

For Raheem, a victory would provide him with a title, finally giving him leverage that could end a long history of frustration and being treated like a second cousin by his promoter, Top Rank. Even when he beat Morales, he got little respect from the people who matter most.

As soon as Raheem was declared the winner by unanimous decision, his manager, Cameron Dunkin, jumped into the ring expecting Top Rank promoter Bob Arum to announce a big money, pay-per-view match for Zahir with Pacquiao - who had knocked out Hector Velazquez on the card's co-feature. Instead he and Raheem heard the last thing they wanted to hear.

"Arum was already talking about Morales fighting Pacquiao next, and I said to Arum, 'What about our fighter?,'" Dunkin said. "And he answered, 'Who cares?' So right there I knew where we were heading."

Treading water to be specific. Not even Morales gave Raheem credit. In one interview a few weeks after the fight, he told reporters, "Without a doubt the last fight was an embarrassment. That never should have happened," said Morales, not once using Raheem's name in the interview. Even Morales' arch-rival Marco Antonio Barrera said pretty much the same thing: "I think he (Morales) just had a bad night."

Still, Raheem was hopeful of getting a big fight on the immediate horizon. But as weeks turned into months, he realized the Morales victory had not been enough to radically change his career. It will have been six excruciating months when he finally steps back in the ring again on April 29 against Freitas. Along the way Dunkin said he was offered two fights by Arum, but both were not on the TV portion of televised cards. As he had been for much of his career with Top Rank, Zahir Raheem was off Arum's radar. So far off, that when a reporter called Top Rank and asked for Raheem's phone number, the publicist said they didn't have it, just Dunkin's.

How bad were Raheem's match-ups? In the 10 fights leading up to his first important bout -- with then unbeaten contender Rocky Juarez in 2004 -- his journeyman opponents had a combined record of 262-153. "He has never been moved much at Top Rank," Dunkin said. "Everything was with his (Arum's) Mexican fighters out West. "That's when I realized I had to get this kid a title, which is where Freitas comes in."

Some feel Raheem deserves a portion of the blame for his lackluster level of opponents. Jeff Mayweather, Floyd Jr.'s uncle, was instrumental in helping Raheem get signed with Top Rank at the same time as his nephew. He has watched Raheem's career, and for two weeks last month in the absence of Zahir's regular trainer Don House, Mayweather stepped in to work with him at Dunkin's request.

Mayweather said Raheem's poor level of competition has been the result of "a combination of things. In his first few fights, he did not look that good. Then when he lost (a highly controversial decision) to Juarez, part of it was the fault of the ref (who appeared to unfairly subtract three points from Raheem). But in that fight I actually questioned Zahir's heart. At one point he wanted to stay on the stool (quit). He said he couldn't feel his legs. They had to push him out. And unfortunately the cameras were on his corner and the whole world heard what he had to say."

Quitting, meanwhile, is the prime reason Freitas finds himself in a crossroads fight. Against Raheem, Freitas will be looking to regain the world stature he abruptly lost when he signaled to the referee to stop the fight after being knocked down for the third time by power puncher Diego Corrales in 2004. It was Freitas' only loss, but a devastating one for a boxer who had been accustomed to international prominence and respect from the time he won his first belt in 1999.

Most media quickly labeled Freitas a quitter, some doing it more cruelly than others. There were comparisons to the great Roberto Duran's infamous "No Mas" fight with Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980, in which Duran, realizing he wasn't going to win that night, quit in the middle of the 8th round.

Some, however, thought the label on Freitas was unfair, since three other times in his career he had been knocked down and had gotten up to fight and win, two by knockout. Against the hard-hitting Corrales, Freitas won the first seven rounds on all judges cards with a strong display of boxing skills, but the energy-draining effort wore him down. Corrales knocked Freitas down in the 8th, 9th and 10th rounds. Freitas got up and continued in the 8th and 9th, tried to stand in the 10th and was halfway up, before signaling he was done.

Freitas' promoter, Art Pellulo of Banner Promotions, strongly disputes the label. "The first knockdown, he told me later he had never been hit like that, never felt any punch so much," Pellulo said. "He wanted to go on in the 10th, but he said he had nothing. How is he a quitter if he gets up three times?"

After taking two tune-up fights with journeyman following the loss to Corrales, this bout against a nearly unbeaten boxer who has just whipped Morales gives Freitas an opportunity to prove himself and rejoin the world of elite fighters. Freitas disagrees on one point.

"I don't have to prove anything to anybody," Freitas said through his translator and trainer Oscar Suarez. "What's past is past. I'm trying to win my fourth world title. That's my focus, not trying to prove anything to people. I want to retire one of the best boxers in history."

Say what Freitas will, an impressive victory over Raheem would undoubtedly do wonders in erasing the bad taste he had after his humbling defeat. "Right after he lost to Corrales," Suarez said, "on the way to the dressing room, he said to me, 'Coach, I'm sorry. It just wasn't my night. I tried to go on, but I had nothing left.' I told him, 'You don't have to tell me you're sorry. A true champ knows his limits. Tomorrow is another day.' A few days ago (mid-March) he came to me and said, 'Today is tomorrow!' I could see the hunger back in his eye."

It was then that Suarez asked Freitas a question that had been nagging him. "I said, 'Why are you back? You no longer sleep on floors. You have invested wisely in real estate. Are you sure you want to do this?' He said, 'I know this is a tough game, but I've already gone through the worst. This and playing soccer is what I love to do. It is not about money.'"

That is a view Pellulo seconds. "Acelino is a God in Brazil," Pellulo said. "In a nationwide poll, he was voted the number one athlete outside soccer, and third overall in the last 75 years. He has bought his family mansions, and built his own $1 million home with a tennis court, swimming pool and a full-size soccer field on the property with lights and a 25-foot fence around it. He's definitely not fighting for money. He wants to get back his title."

Which is not to say there isn't a lot of money to be made back home by Popo. "This is a big money fight in Brazil," Pellulo said. "When he fought Casamayor, it was on free TV and 92-93 per cent of every TV in Brazil was watching that fight. Television in Brazil pays big money for him, on a par with HBO and Showtime."

So adored is Popo, that when he lost to Corrales, editors and reporters in Brazil tripped over themselves trying to be positive. "The papers didn't show a single shot of him on the canvas," Pellulo said. "The headlines were all positive. One said, 'A Great Champion Will Be Back.'"

While Pellulo insists he offered Corrales' promoter Gary Shaw $1.5 million for a rematch, Shaw vehemently denies it. "At no time did he offer me money for a rematch," Shaw said. "He had an option to promote Corrales' next fight, which he did (with Top Rank). Then I bought him out of his last option for $300,000."

What is not disputed - and few of his detractors know -- is that Freitas desperately wanted a rematch, and even wrote a letter to Corrales about it, which said: "I didn't have to give you the opportunity to win my belt. But I wanted to prove who was the best. On that night, you were. I know this is a business, but I'm disappointed you won't give me a rematch. Hopefully we can do it in the future."

Besides wanting to avenge his only loss, Corrales has the one thing in boxing Freitas covets more than anything: a WBC belt. "My goal since I was a kid was to be a WBC champion," said Freitas, who has worn WBA and WBO belts. "I won't retire until I win a WBC belt."

Although Shaw said he definitely would give Freitas a rematch in the future, first Corrales has to get past his rubber match with the dangerous Jose Luis Castillo on June 3. Freitas knows, however, if he looks past Raheem and loses, his chances of achieving that goal will be badly detoured.

Given all these two boxers have been through, and with so much at stake, this shapes up as a must-watch fight.