Acelino "Popó" Freitas (; born September 21, 1975) is a Brazilian politician and a former professional boxer who competed between 1995 to 2017. He is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...

super featherweight title from 1992 to 2004, the WBA (Unified) super featherweight title from 2002 to 2004, and the WBO

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight b ...

title twice between 2004 to 2007. After retiring from boxing, Freitas went into politics, and was elected as a legislator for the state of Bahia, from 2011 to 2014. His nickname, ''Popó'', was given to him by his mother, after the sound that babies make while drinking milk. " retrieved 15 May 2009.

Early life

Freitas had a difficult childhood, often sleeping on a sandy floor at his house. Since early in his life, he dreamed of a better place to live for his family. A skilled football player, he was more inclined, however, towards the sport of boxing since an early age. He was heavily influenced by his father and brothers, especially

Luis Claudio Freitas Luiz Freitas (born 3 August 1967) is a Brazilian boxer. He competed in the men's flyweight event at the 1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), official ...

. Fellow Brazilian Eder Jofre, generally recognized as the greatest world champion to come out of that country, was one of Freitas' childhood heroes.

Amateur career

Freitas competed for his native country and won a lightweight silver medal at the Pan American Games 1995 in

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Argentine Sea, Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón Partido, General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires ...

Professional career

Early success

After the Pan American Games he turned into a professional boxer on July 14, 1995, against Adriano Jose Soares. With his win by knockout in the first round that night, Freitas set off a streak of 29 knockout wins in a row, which places as one of the longest knockout wins streak in boxing history. His first 10 wins were against low level competition, but for fight number 11, he took on the much more experienced Edwin Vazquez, knocking him out in the seventh round. Between 1997 and 1998, Freitas won four more fights and then took on Francisco Tomas Da Cruz, a former world title challenger of Julio César Chávez. Freitas handled Da Cruz with a knockout in two rounds and then added three more knockout wins before getting his first world title shot.

First World Title

On August 7, 1999, Freitas knocked out

Junior Lightweight Champion Anatoly Alexandrov in the first round. Soon after, he signed a contract with

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

giant

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global ...

, which began to telecast Freitas' fights to the United States. Freitas then made five defenses of his world title and had one non-title bout, all of which ended in knockout wins. He then went to London and took only 45 seconds to stop Daniel Alicea in another non-title affair. Freitas then beat the former world champion:

Al Kotey Alfred Kotey (3 June 1968 – 30 June 2020) was a Ghanaian professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2012. He held the WBO bantamweight title from 1994 to 1995 and at regional level the Commonwealth flyweight title from 1989 to 1990. As an am ...

, the brother of David 'Poison' Kotei, by a ten-round decision.

Freitas vs Casamayor

On January 12, 2002, Freitas decided to sign for a unification bout with the WBA world champion,

Joel Casamayor Joel Casamayor Johnson (born July 12, 1971) is a Cuban American former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2011. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the WBA super featherweight title from 2000 to 2002; and the ...

, a Cuban refugee who resides in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

. In a rousing super featherweight unification title bout battle between unbeaten champions, a controversial knockdown and a blatant foul cost Casamayor his unblemished record and his title as Freitas won a close 12 round unanimous decision. In a classic boxing confrontation between the Brazilian bomber Freitas (129½) and the Cuban boxer Casamayor (129½), the fighters switched roles midway through their encounter in what was reminiscent of Sugar Ray Leonard's first historic face-off with Thomas "Hitman" Hearns back in 1981. The scientist Casamayor became the aggressive slugger, while the puncher Freitas turned into the boxer as once again the unpredictable transpired in a mega-fight. A glancing right-hand to the neck of the off-balanced Casamayor in the 3rd round was ruled a knockdown by referee Joe Cortez and intentionally hitting on the break in the 6th saw the Cuban penalized another point. It was the difference in the finale tallies and the two point cushion that the tiring Freitas retained across the boards on all three judges scorecards. Ring officials Robert Byrd, Bill Graham and Dave Moretti having identical scores of 114 to 112 for the Brazilian.

After Casamayor

Next, he went to Phoenix, to fight

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...

n Daniel Attah, with only the WBO belt on the line, winning a 12-round decision on August 3, 2002. The fight was watched by an estimated 91 million viewers in Brazil. Freitas then retained the title in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

with a fourth-round knockout of Juan Carlos Ramirez. On August 9, 2003, he and Jorge Barrios engaged in what Showtime commentator Steve Albert called a ''candidate for fight of the year''. Freitas was floored in rounds eight and eleven, but retaliated with a knockdown of his own towards the end of the eleventh, and ended up retaining the title by knockout in round twelve. Freitas began 2004 by winning a 12-round unanimous decision over Artur Grigorian on January 4, to become the WBO's world Lightweight champion. On February 1 of that year, the WBA announced it had named Freitas their 2003 ''Fighter of the year''.

Freitas vs Corrales

On August 7, 2004, Freitas lost for the first time, losing his WBO Lightweight title to Diego Corrales by TKO in the tenth round after being knocked down by a left hook in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

After Corrales

On April 29, 2006, Freitas defeated Zahir Raheem for the vacant WBO lightweight title by split decision. Freitas announced his retirement as a professional boxer on October 4, 2006.José Elias Flores Jr. 4 October 2006. ''Fightnews.com''.

URL A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed as a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifie ...

accessed 4 October 2006. Later on, he announced his come back from retirement, and the WBO re-instated him as their lightweight champion. On April 28, 2007, he fought Juan Diaz in

Mashantucket Mashantucket is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northeast part of the town of Ledyard, New London County, Connecticut, United States. It consists of land held by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. The Foxwoods Resort Casino is in the northeast ...

, USA, losing by TKO after his trainer stopped the bout at the beginning the 9th round, drawing boos from the crowd. He has fought three times since his last loss (2012, 2015, and most recently in November 2017), all wins against inferior competition and all in South America (two wins by knockout and one win by 8-round unanimous decision).

Personal life

Freitas' childhood hero was Brazilian boxer Eder Jofre. His career in boxing was heavily influenced by his older brother

. He has been able to help his family financially and has built a soccer field in his mansion, allowing him to practice his second favorite sport. Freitas' married wife Eliana Guimarães in 2001, they divorced in 2003. He was Secretary of Sports in Salvador and is member of Brazilian Republican Party. The careers of Acelino Freitas and

are depicted in the 2019 biographical TV series ''Irmãos Freitas'', directed by Walter Salles and Sérgio Machado. Brazilian actors Daniel Rocha and Rômulo Braga co-star as Acelino Freitas and Luis Claudio Freitas.

Professional boxing record

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:95%" , - ! !Result !Record !Opponent !Type !Round, time !Date !Location !Notes , - , 43 , Win , 41–2 , style="text-align:left;", Gabriel Martinez , UD , 8 , Nov 11, 2017 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 42 , Win , 40–2 , style="text-align:left;", Mateo Damian Veron , TKO , 3 (10), , Aug 15, 2015 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 41 , Win , 39–2 , style="text-align:left;",

Michael Oliveira Michael Oliveira (born April 24, 1990) is a Brazilian professional boxer. Professional career On September 11, 2009 Oliveira beat Robert Kliewer to win the UNBC Latin middleweight title. On June 2, 2012 Oliveria is scheduled to fight former mu ...

, TKO , 9 (10), , Jun 2, 2012 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 40 , Loss , 38–2 , style="text-align:left;", Juan Díaz , RTD , 8 (12), , Apr 28, 2007 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 39 , Win , 38–1, , align=left, Zahir Raheem , SD , 12 , Apr 29, 2006 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 38 , Win , 37–1 , style="text-align:left;", Fabian Salazar , KO , 1 (10), , Jul 16, 2005 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 37 , Win , 36–1 , style="text-align:left;",

David Saucedo Fernando David Saucedo (born 13 January 1981) commonly known as David Saucedo is an Argentine professional boxer. His father was also a boxer and is now his coach. Professional career On December 5, 2010 Saucedo had his chance for WBA (Super) f ...

, UD , 10 , Dec 11, 2004 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 36 , Loss , 35–1 , style="text-align:left;", Diego Corrales , TKO , 10 (12), , Aug 7, 2004 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 35 , Win , 35–0 , style="text-align:left;", Artur Grigorian , UD , 12 , Jan 3, 2004 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 34 , Win , 34–0 , style="text-align:left;", Jorge Rodrigo Barrios , TKO , 12 (12), , Aug 9, 2003 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 33 , Win , 33–0 , style="text-align:left;",

Juan Carlos Ramírez Juan Carlos "Ranchero" Ramírez (born April 24, 1977) is a Mexican professional boxer. He is the former NABF featherweight and WBO Inter-Continental featherweight champion. Professional career WBC Featherweight Championship In August 1998, Ra ...

, TKO , 4 (12), , Mar 15, 2003 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 32 , Win , 32–0 , style="text-align:left;", Daniel Attah , UD , 12 , Aug 3, 2002 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 31 , Win , 31–0 , style="text-align:left;",

, UD , 12 , Jan 12, 2002 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 30 , Win , 30–0 , style="text-align:left;",

Alfred Kotey Alfred Kotey (3 June 1968 – 30 June 2020) was a Ghanaian professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2012. He held the WBO bantamweight title from 1994 to 1995 and at regional level the Commonwealth flyweight title from 1989 to 1990. As an ama ...

, UD , 10 , Sep 29, 2001 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 29 , Win , 29–0 , style="text-align:left;", Orlando Soto , KO , 1 (12), , Jan 27, 2001 , align=left, , style="text-align:left;", , - , 28 , Win , 28–0 , style="text-align:left;", Daniel Alicea , TKO , 1 (12), , Dec 16, 2000 , align=left, , , - , 27 , Win , 27–0 , style="text-align:left;", Carlos Rios , TKO , 9 (12), , Sep 23, 2000 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 26 , Win , 26–0 , style="text-align:left;", Lemuel Nelson , TKO , 2 (12), , Jun 10, 2000 , align=left, , style="text-align:left;", , - , 25 , Win , 25–0 , style="text-align:left;", Javier Jáuregui , KO , 1 (12), , Mar 18, 2000 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 24 , Win , 24–0 , style="text-align:left;", Barry Jones , TKO , 8 (12), , Jan 15, 2000 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 23 , Win , 23–0 , style="text-align:left;", Claudio Victor Martinet , KO , 3 (10) , Dec 18, 1999 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 22 , Win , 22–0 , style="text-align:left;", Anthony Martinez , TKO , 2 (12), , Oct 26, 1999 , align=left, , style="text-align:left;", , - , 21 , Win , 21–0 , style="text-align:left;", Anatoly Alexandrov , KO , 1 (12), , Aug 7, 1999 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 20 , Win , 20–0 , style="text-align:left;", Juan Angel Macias , KO , 8 (12) , Apr 2, 1999 , align=left, , style="text-align:left;", , - , 19 , Win , 19–0 , style="text-align:left;", Peter Buckley , RTD , 3 (8), , Dec 19, 1998 , align=left, , , - , 18 , Win , 18–0 , style="text-align:left;", Jose Luis Montes , TKO , 1 (12) , Oct 16, 1998 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 17 , Win , 17–0 , style="text-align:left;", Francisco Tomas Da Cruz , TKO , 2 (12) , Sep 15, 1998 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 16 , Win , 16–0 , style="text-align:left;", Juan Gutierrez , TKO , 1 (12) , Aug 14, 1998 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 15 , Win , 15–0 , style="text-align:left;", Rafael Oliveira , KO , 3 (10), , Jun 8, 1998 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 14 , Win , 14–0 , style="text-align:left;", Rildo José Oliveira , TKO , 1 (12) , May 29, 1998 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 13 , Win , 13–0 , style="text-align:left;", Gustavo Rodolfo Sayaavedra , KO , 1 (10) , Nov 19, 1997 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 12 , Win , 12–0 , style="text-align:left;", Edwin Vazquez , TKO , 7 (12) , Sep 2, 1997 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 11 , Win , 11–0 , style="text-align:left;", Hilario Guzman , TKO , 8 (10), , Jun 27, 1997 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 10 , Win , 10–0 , style="text-align:left;",

Johnny Montantes Johnny Montantes, alias ''Jumpin' Johnny'', (June 10, 1969 – September 28, 1997) was a lightweight professional boxer from Minnesota. Personal life Montantes was from Saint Paul, Minnesota. He named his son "Marciano" in honor of heavyweight gre ...

, TKO , 1 (8), , May 10, 1997 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 9 , Win , 9–0 , style="text-align:left;", Arcelio Diaz , TKO , 1 (12) , Apr 22, 1997 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 8 , Win , 8–0 , style="text-align:left;", Antonio Maria Do Nascimento , KO , 2 (6) , Mar 8, 1997 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 7 , Win , 7–0 , style="text-align:left;", Hamilton Cerqueira , KO , 4 (6) , Feb 1, 1997 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 6 , Win , 6–0 , style="text-align:left;", Gutemberg Ferreira , KO , 2 (12) , Aug 16, 1996 , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", , - , 5 , Win , 5–0 , style="text-align:left;", Ralph Riveros , KO , 2 (6) , Apr 2, 1996 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 4 , Win , 4–0 , style="text-align:left;", Marco De Lima , TKO , 3 (6) , Nov 14, 1995 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 3 , Win , 3–0 , style="text-align:left;", Manoel Oliveira da Cruz , KO , 2 (4) , Sep 18, 1995 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 2 , Win , 2–0 , style="text-align:left;", Valdevino Monteiro , KO , 1 (4) , Aug 14, 1995 , style="text-align:left;", , , - , 1 , Win , 1–0 , style="text-align:left;", Jose Adriano Soares , KO , 1 (4) , Jul 14, 1995 , style="text-align:left;", ,

Television viewership

Brazil

{, class="wikitable sortable" ! Date !! Fight !! Network !! Viewership () !! Source(s) , - , , Acelino Freitas vs. Daniel Attah , , , , - ! !Total viewership ! !91,000,000 !

References

External links

*
boxen-artur.de
– Encyclopedia * {{DEFAULTSORT:Freitas, Acelino 1975 births Super-featherweight boxers Lightweight boxers Living people World Boxing Association champions World Boxing Organization champions Sportspeople from Salvador, Bahia Pan American Games silver medalists for Brazil Boxers at the 1995 Pan American Games Brazilian male boxers Pan American Games medalists in boxing Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games