Acelino Freitas vs Carlos Rios

Brazil’s Acelino Freitas retained the WBO junior-lightweight championship by stopping Carlos Rios in the ninth round at Casino Rama in Ontario, Canada, on September 23, 2000. Freitas, making the fifth defence of the title, weighed the division limit of 130lb, while Rios was 129½lb. The Brazilian entered unbeaten in 26 contests with every victory inside the distance, while the experienced Argentine challenger had previously fought Floyd Mayweather Jr and Luisito Espinosa in world-title competition. A sell-out crowd of approximately 3,500 watched the contest, which was televised in the United States by Showtime.

Freitas began in the manner expected of a champion whose reputation rested heavily upon his punching power. He moved forward immediately, using the jab more than was customary for him and looking to bring the straight right and right uppercut into play. Rios, awkward but experienced, tried to make himself difficult to hit cleanly by moving his head, dipping under the heavier blows, and occasionally stepping inside with wide hooks to the body. Freitas nevertheless controlled the first. A right uppercut landed cleanly on Rios’s jaw, and the challenger was forced backwards towards the ropes, where Freitas followed with further rights and uppercuts. Rios escaped without being badly hurt, but he had landed very little of consequence.

Rios showed greater ambition in the second and third. His intention had been to box during the opening rounds and then increase the pressure once Freitas had been made to work, and he began to carry out that plan by using a probing jab and trying to counter the champion’s forward movement with body punches and wide rights. Freitas remained the more accurate man and repeatedly found him with straight punches, but Rios showed both durability and confidence. When Freitas backed onto the ropes, Rios followed and attempted to work over the champion at close quarters. Freitas proved comfortable there, slipping punches and countering, but the challenger at least made him work rather than merely survive.

The fourth was Rios’s best round to that point. He pressed Freitas to the ropes late in the session, dug at the body and then came upstairs with a right hand. For perhaps the first time, Freitas was being forced to give ground rather than choosing to. Rios was not landing with the same authority as the champion, but his activity and willingness to attack had made the contest more competitive. Freitas acknowledged the effort at the bell. The Argentine’s left eye, however, was already swelling and a cut had developed beneath it, an area which would become increasingly important as the fight progressed.

Freitas regained complete control in the fifth. A straight right hand buckled Rios’s knees and another right soon afterwards had the same effect. The champion followed with uppercuts and crosses, repeatedly finding the damaged left side of the challenger’s face. Rios remained upright but was badly shaken and for much of the round was reduced to taking punches while attempting to find enough room to recover. His left eye continued to close, and the force began to disappear from his own work. Late in the round, he managed to land several punches while Freitas rested briefly on the ropes, but once the champion had recovered his breath, he resumed the attack before the bell.

Rios continued to show determination in the sixth. He worked inside when the opportunity arose and tried to force Freitas backwards during the second half of the round. There were several untidy exchanges, including a low punch from Rios, which brought a warning from referee Joe Cortez. The challenger was beginning to slow, leaning his head against Freitas’s shoulder in an effort to gain short rests, but he continued pressing whenever the champion’s output dropped. Freitas was still landing the straighter and heavier punches, particularly the lead right, but he no longer maintained the furious pace of the earlier rounds.

The seventh brought a change in the pattern. Freitas spent much of the round moving backwards, appearing to conserve energy after his earlier exertions. Rios followed and tried to take advantage, although the champion still landed the cleaner shots while retreating and finished the round with a twisting uppercut. Rios was penalised one point for another low blow, turning what might otherwise have been a competitive round into a 10-8 round for Freitas on the official cards. There was also an incidental clash of heads as the two men came together. Rios’s corner attempted to encourage him by insisting that Freitas was tiring, but the champion remained well ahead.

Rios again had moments in the eighth. He landed a left to the body followed by a hook to the head and later got through with a right which momentarily knocked Freitas off balance. The Argentine was still coming forward despite the increasingly severe swelling around his left eye. Freitas answered with sharp right hands and hooks and continued to find the more accurate punches. At the end of eight rounds, all three judges had Freitas ahead 78-73. Harold Gomes had given Rios the fourth and eighth, while Harry Davis had Rios taking the fourth and sixth; the seventh-round deduction widened the champion’s advantage.

Freitas had never previously gone beyond eight rounds, but there was no sign of uncertainty when the ninth began. He resumed looking for the right hand and soon found it. Rios walked into a heavy right while coming forward and was badly hurt, turning towards his own corner as his legs weakened. Freitas followed, and another right sent the challenger down. Rios rose at approximately the count of five, but his face was badly damaged, and the left eye had opened further under the accumulation of punches. His corner had seen enough. A towel was thrown into the ring as Freitas renewed his attack, and Cortez recognised the surrender and stopped the contest at 1:18 of the ninth round.

The stoppage gave Freitas his twenty-seventh victory and twenty-seventh inside the distance. Rios had extended him farther than any previous opponent and had occasionally succeeded in forcing the champion onto the defensive, but he had never been able to match Freitas’s accuracy or power. The right hand repeatedly decided the exchanges, while the damage around Rios’s left eye steadily reduced his ability to see the punch coming. Rios’s toughness carried him through several difficult rounds, but by the ninth the accumulated punishment had become too severe for his corner to allow the fight to continue.

For Freitas, the defence was useful because it required more than an early assault. His previous title victories had often ended quickly, and Rios forced him to work through slower periods, box while moving backwards and preserve enough strength to finish strongly. The champion remained undefeated and kept intact his unusual record of having stopped every professional opponent he had faced. Rios, meanwhile, had again shown the toughness which had allowed him to go the distance with Mayweather, but against Freitas the combination of persistent pressure, straight right hands and cumulative damage eventually proved too much.

Freitas was one of those fighters who could make you forget there was more to him than power. Everybody knew about the knockouts, but against Rios he had to show a bit more patience because the Argentine was experienced, awkward and tough enough to survive the early pressure.

What I like watching in this fight is how Freitas keeps looking for that right hand without completely losing his shape. Rios made him work, especially when he crowded him and forced him backwards, and there were spells where Freitas had to box rather than blast someone out. That was useful for him. He could be wild when he fancied the finish, but here he showed he could reset, pick his moments and keep finding the cleaner punches.

Rios deserves credit because he had already been in with men like Floyd Mayweather Jr and Luisito Espinosa, so he wasn’t coming in there frightened of a reputation. He made Freitas go deeper than most opponents had managed and kept trying to make it uncomfortable.

But the difference in punching authority was always there. Once Freitas started landing those right hands regularly, you could see Rios being gradually broken down. By the ninth, the damage had accumulated, and the finish was coming.

For me, this was a good win for Freitas because it showed another side of him. He wasn’t just a knockout merchant. He could box, adjust and still carry that frightening power late into a fight.