BORGES RECAP: FREITAS VS. RAHEEM

Monday, May 1, 2006 - by Ron Borges

Acelino Freitas won the vacant World Boxing Organization lightweight title Saturday night and still couldn't believe the scorecards. At least not the one penned by judge Clark Sammartino.

Sammartino somehow defied what happened in front of his apparently bleary eyes at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut and found a way to give Zahir Raheem a close victory over Freitas, an opinion not shared by either fellow judges Glenn Feldman (116-112 Freitas) and Steve Weisfeld (115-113) or most of the packed house of Freitas' Brazilian supporters.

Although the fight was less than scintillating the former junior lightweight and lightweight champion seemed to land all of the heaviest blows, twice wobbling Raheem although never able to put him down, and did more than enough to deserve the split decision he was awarded.

The latter could not be said for Raheem, who sent Freitas to the canvas three times but unfortunately for both of them all three were the result of wrestling throws and tangled feet rather than punches. Had the latter been the case, Raheem would finally be a world champion after coming close for the second time in his career. But that was not the case and Freitas made emphatically clear that was how he felt.

"It was crazy,'' Freitas (38-1, 32 KO) said of Sammartino's card. "I don't know what that judge was looking at.''

What he was looking at was a fight in which Freitas indeed had some problems dealing with Raheem's southpaw style but not so many that it finally gave Raheem a chance to live a dream he has held since his amateur days. Although the Brazilian idol was the aggressor most of the night he did not look like the dominating power puncher he was before his last visit to Foxwoods nearly two years ago when he was dropped three times before retiring voluntarily (and wisely) in the 10th round against then WBO lightweight champion Diego Corrales.

That remains the only loss of Freitas' career and it is one he deeply wants to avenge, a process that could begin before the year is out if Corrales can find a way to defeat Jose Luis Castillo in the rubber match of a trilogy that has ended with first Castillo and then Corrales out on their respective feet in the first two gladiator-like confrontations. If Corrales can defeat Castillo in June, Freitas' promoter Art Pelullo indicated they would be interested in challenging him again with the newly won WBO belt Corrales gave up to face Castillo a third time rather than give Freitas a rematch at risk.

"The winner (of Corrales-Castillo) is who we want but "Popo''(Freitas) would prefer the winner be Corrales,'' Pelullo said. "He's the only guy to ever beat him. He wants a chance to even that score.''

Freitas will have to do much more than he did against Raheem to achieve that, however. While Freitas buckled Raheem's knees in Round 2 and stunned him again in the ninth with a thunderous uppercut that wobbled Raheem and nearly sent him to the floor, Freitas no longer seems to be the flurrying finisher he was before Corrales ended the aura of invincibility that once enshrouded the Brazilian favorite.

Both times Raheem was hurt he recovered quickly and Freitas seemed less than enthused about risking himself to try and finish him. Instead he seemed content much of the night to stay behind his jab and keep his distance in an effort avoid the awkward clinches that made it difficult for both men to look their best."He's awkward to fight,'' Raheem (27-2, 16 KO) admitted. "I couldn't really put my shots together.''

That was true from the opening round, when the two of them stumbled into each other and accidentally knocked heads. That left Raheem with a small cut under his left eye and Freitas with an abrasion on his forehead. Neither marring had any effect on the outcome however as much of the rest of the night was made up of brief moments of stirring action interspersed with stumbles, clinches and frustration on both men's parts.

Despite the fact Freitas seemed to land the more powerful shots and controlled the tempo of the fight much of the night with a sharp jab Raheem had problems avoiding, it was Raheem who landed the most blows according to CompuBox's statistics. Certainly he was the more accurate (123 of 397 to Freitas' alleged 118 of 517) puncher, but he threw 120 fewer punches. Even though many of Freitas' blows missed they made the case for him that he was the aggressor and the far busier fighter.

Couple that effort to make the fight with a loud crowd of supporters behind Freitas and it was a recipe for losing the kind of close fight Zahir Raheem chose or was forced into. Much of the night he was the one seen clinching and wrestling. He was the one sternly warned by referee Steve Smoger in the sixth round after he threw Freitas down in frustration for the third time. He was the one who was hurt twice. In a fight fought the way this one was those are the kind of things that separated the two in what was a closely contested, and frustrating affair, for Raheem.

"What do I have to do?'' Raheem asked after the split decision was announced. "Should I say out punch him? Throw more punches than him? Land the bigger blows? Should I say that? No, I can't say that because I already did that. "What could I do (more) to win? Knock him out to win, I guess. The reason these decisions don't go to me is because I go to these guys' hometowns.''

Actually Freitas was fighting several thousand miles from his hometown in Brazil but Raheem's point was that he is the one asked to go to areas fully supporting opponents like Freitas, who had a large Brazilian population in Massachusetts and New York behind him, or Rocky Juarez, who won a close decision from Raheem in his hometown two years ago the first time the former U.S. Olympian fought for the lightweight title. Raheem has had trouble getting the kind of fights he most wants because he is difficult to beat and even more difficult to look good against. While that makes his road toward a championship a difficult one to follow it had nothing to do with what went on at Foxwoods Saturday night. That night, Zahir Raheem lost a split decision to Acelino Freitas for the simplest of reasons.

He lost because he didn't do enough. He wasn't aggressive enough. He held too often, threw to infrequently, didn't land enough significant punches and wasn't as elusive as expected. Admittedly, Acelino Freitas struggled at times solving the problems posed by his left-handed opponent, who is difficult to find, but what he did look like was what he ended up being named. He looked like the winner.

A winner who might be wise to think long and hard before he runs after Diego Corrales, regardless of whether or not Corrales defeats Jose Luis Castillo six weeks from now.