Doug Fischer
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 Everyone Wants a Piece of
the ‘Popo Pie’
By Doug Fischer
(August 6, 2003) Photo © Tom Casino
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Junior lightweight champ Acelino ‘Popo’ Freitas is a wanted man.
The good-natured attitude he exudes out of the ring and the power-punching prowess he exhibits inside the squared circle that makes him a superstar in his native Brazil, and has endeared him to boxing fans worldwide, also makes him the target of a cadre of champions, title holders and top contenders who make their home in and around the 130-pound division.
Add to his affable personality and crowd-pleasing style the fact that he is a cable network player and the holder of what is perhaps the most stellar undefeated record in the sport (33-0, with 30 KOs), it’s easy to understand why the best fighters from four different weight classes – from 126 to 140 pounds – have either called out Freitas or seriously considered fighting the WBA/WBO 130-pound title holder.
So why is Freitas wasting his time fighting Jorge Rodrigo Barrios this Saturday in a Showtime-televised main event from Miami?
Who is Barrios, anyway? Where the heck did he come from?
Argentina is the answer, and evidently, he’s a big deal over there.
“I am very popular because aside from being on television, I am one of the most famous models in Argentina,” Barrios boasted to the press during a Tuesday conference call. “Most important is that I like to talk, but I back it all up in the ring. I always sell out whenever I compete in Argentina. In Argentina, everyone either hates me or loves me.”
That’s great. Good for you, Jorge. But fans outside of Argentina don’t give a rat’s ass about you. That comment is not a slight on Barrios, a funny character with a solid record, it’s just the truth.
Barrios is not a bum as his 39-1-1 (29) record would indicate. He’s defeated the best 130 pounders and lightweights of Argentina and he is probably a pretty tough cookie. But at this stage of his career, Freitas should be done with fighting tough cookies. Freitas already proved he could wear down run-of-the-mill macho hard heads when he beat up Carlos Rios, another tough guy from Argentina, back in 2000.
Barrios has got some personality to go with his hard head. A brash fighter with a little bit of wit, Barrios calls ‘Popo’ Freitas “papas fritas”, which is Spanish for French fries. His enthusiastic but unruly outbursts during yesterday’s conference call reduced the telephone media gathering to a rambling storm of Spanish and Portuguese. So Barrios may bring some much-needed pizzazz to Saturday’s fight, but the fact remains that he is unknown in the U.S. having only fought in South America (Argentina and Uruguay).
“I think the Brazilian fans will be excited because there is a rivalry between these two countries (Brazil and Argentina),” Freitas said during the conference call.
The champ was talking about a soccer rivalry – something fight fans in this country, where the fight will be broadcast (along with two other bouts) at 10 p.m. ET/PT, could care less about.
To his credit, Barrios downplayed any national or soccer rivalries between the South American countries.
“There is no rivalry between Argentina and Brazil because we are all brothers,” Barrios said. “I look forward to the challenge on Aug. 9 because I feel there are a lot more challenges besides the champion in the 130-pound division.”
Barrios is right about that. And fight fans want to see Freitas in with those top 130-pound fighters, all of whom have very hard fights coming up.
Former WBA title holder Joel Casamayor, the man Freitas beat last January to become one of boxing’s “super” champions, is taking on former IBF titlist Diego Corrales in the co-feature to the Evander Holyfield-James Toney heavyweight bout that takes place on Oct. 4 in Las Vegas. The clash between the 29-1 (18) Cuban boxer and the 37-1 (32) Sacramento slugger will not only provide fans with a hell of a fight, but it will also determine a consensus no. 1 contender for Freitas in the minds of many boxing fans and pundits.
Also on Oct. 4, current IBF title holder Carlos Hernandez will take on former titlist Steve Forbes in Los Angeles. The winner of this title bout between the pressure-fighting Hernandez, 38-3-1 (23), and the slick-boxing Forbes, 23-1 (6), would provide another stern challenge to Freitas.
And in another 130-pound title fight taking place next Friday, WBC title holder Sirimongkol Singmanassak, 40-1 (23), will travel from Thailand to Austin, Texas to defend against former title challenger Jesus Chavez, 39-2 (28). The winner of that bout would also provide a tough fight for Freitas.
However, the potential challengers for Freitas don’t stop with the 130-pound division. Just below and above the junior lightweight weight class are four fighters who are considered to be among the best fighters in the world, pound for pound, each of whom have been mentioned as potential opponents for Freitas.
The two best featherweights in the world – Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales – have both stated publicly that they would be willing to step up to junior lightweight to face Freitas.
After their epic first battle back in February of 2000, Barrera’s first comeback fight after Morales was a small pay-per-view show in Mexico City where he took on Luiz Freitas, Popo’s older brother.
Luiz Freitas wobbled the naturally smaller Mexican early in the opening minute of the fight, but then drew the wrath of Barrera’s vicious body attack, which put him down for the count in the opening round.
A mega-match between Barrera, 57-3 (40), and Freitas could be Popo’s chance to gain revenge for his older brother, who has since retired to assist in training Freitas.
Then there is Morales, who will have his first bout at 130 pounds on the Top Rank-promoted Oct. 4th card in L.A., where he will take on Guty Espadas Jr. in a WBC title eliminator. Morales’s target is the winner of the Singmanassak-Chavez WBC title bout, but the 44-1 (33) ‘El Terrible’ has stated numerous times that he would love to pit his warrior’s heart against Freitas’s bone jarring power.
And let’s not forget about the 135-pound division, currently ruled by Floyd Mayweather Jr. ‘The Pretty Boy’, 30-0 (20), is perhaps the only fighter that the quiet and humble Freitas has ever called out or publicly expressed an interest in fighting.
Freitas has said many times that once he unifies the 130-pound division he intends to go up in weight to confront Mayweather, who crashed the post-fight press conference after Freitas’s victory over Casamayor to personally challenge the Brazilian.
And recently, it was revealed that some of the higher ups within the Showtime network had discussed the possible matchup of Freitas vs. Kostya Tszyu, the undisputed 140-pound champion. Both fighters have contracts with the network.
It would seem that Tszyu, 30-1 (24), is too big for Freitas for this fight to receive serious consideration from the 130-pound champ, but the mere rumor of discussions between the fighters’ promoters and Showtime caused ripples to shoot through boxing’s grapevine – perhaps more ripples than Freitas’s actual fight with Barrios will cause this weekend.
At least Popo promises to make it a quick night. Freitas predicted a second-round KO victory over Barrios during yesterday’s conference call.
“I’ll give him one round to run and one round to fall,” he said.
Then, hopefully, Freitas and his promoter, Arthur R. Pelullo, and his network will pick one of the fighters mentioned in this article for his next bout. He can’t go wrong with any one of them. There are champions, no. 1 contenders, boxers, punchers, pressure fighters, and brawlers to choose from. Most importantly, they are all winners — Casamayor, Corrales, Hernandez, Forbes, Singmanassak, Chavez, Barrera, Morales, Mayweather and Tszyu have a combined record of 367-14-1 — and they are well known to boxing fans around the globe.
There will be no need to mention soccer rivalries in order hype any of these matchups with Freitas because each fight would either be a 130-pound title unification bout or a legitimate superfight.
From Barrera to Tszyu, they all want a piece of the ‘Popo pie’. The question is, will Freitas and his handlers stop holding out and start dishing out to hungry boxing fans?
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