Thursday, Aug. 7, 2003 | 9:36 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
Brazil and Argentina may be neighboring countries but they're heated rivals, as proven by the fervor of their soccer matches.
Saturday in Miami that rivalry will be rekindled again, as each country has a representative in a World Boxing Association junior lightweight title fight to be televised by Showtime.
Acelino Freitas of Brazil is the reigning WBA champion at 130 pounds and Jorge Rodrigo Barrios of Argentina is the organization's No. 3 contender.
Freitas, 27, is 33-0 with 30 knockouts, a major star in Brazil and only a slight favorite in this fight.
Barrios, 27, is 39-1-1 with 29 KOs and enjoys a lofty stature in his homeland as well.
Barrios has been the more boisterous of the two leading up to the fight and had to be verbally restrained during a conference call with the contestants this week.
"I have a big mouth but I can also fight," he said. "I like to talk, but I back it up in the ring.
"I'm sure I will knock him out in the seventh round."
But Freitas has his own prediction.
"I expect to win very fast, (in) two rounds," he said. "One (round) is for him to run and one is for him to fall down."
Freitas has an advantage in quality experience, having beaten Lemuel Nelson, Daniel Alicea, Alfred Kotay and, most notably, Joel Casamayor, within the past three years.
"I'm a professional, very mature," Freitas said. "I'm ready."
He said Barrios' statements are "part of the game" and that he has "nothing personal" against him.
"It's normal," he said of Barrios stirring the waters. "The one with the big mouth will say whatever he wants. But I'm expecting a victory and I'm going to shut him up."
Freitas has been going through a divorce but he says it hasn't interrupted his training camp.
Barrios, whose only loss was by disqualification, is said to be a busy fighter with good endurance and skills. He has also worked as a model in Argentina.
"Everyone in Argentina knows me," he said. "They either hate me or love me."
But the 2000 Olympians pale in comparison to their 1996 counterparts, at least in terms of victories and progress within a three-year period.
By the middle of 1999, '96 Olympians Pablo Chacon and Wladimir Klitschko had already combined for 58 wins and no fewer than nine fighters who competed in Atlanta had won at least 20 fights as professionals.
Yet only one of the 2000 Olympians, welterweight Kelson Pinto of Brazil who is 21-0, has won as many as 20 pro fights and none of the Sydney competitors is a world champion.
In fact, reviewing the list of gold medalists in Sydney points out just how obscure many of them have (once again) become. They include: Brahim Asloum, France, light flyweight; Wijan Ponlid, Thailand, flyweight; Guillermo Rigondeaux, Cuba, bantamweight; Bezkat Sattarkhov, Kazakhstan, featherweight; Mario Kindelan, Cuba, lightweight; Mahamadkodir Abdullaev, Kazakhstan, light welterweight; Oleg Saitov, Russia, welterweight; Yermankhan Ibraimov, Kazakhstan, light middleweight; Jorge Guttierez, Cuba, middleweight; Aleksandre Lebziak, Russia, light heavyweight; Felix Savon, Cuba, heavyweight; and Audley Harrison, Great Britain, super heavyweight.
None of the above group, including Abdullaev, who trains here but is coming off a loss, is poised for a world-title fight in the foreseeable future.
In related notes:
Taylor, who fights Freddy Cuevas in Friday's ESPN2 main event, is a middleweight who is 15-0.
Harrison, who was to have fought Wednesday on the now-postponed Antwun Echols vs. Anthony Mundine card in Australia, is currently being shopped as a headliner for a Sept. 9 card, perhaps in Las Vegas.
Tunica, Miss., Wednesday was awarded the 2004 U.S. Olympic Box-Offs, which will be Feb. 16-21 in the Tunica Arena & Exposition Center.
World Boxing Council heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis is, again, considering retirement (at the age of 37) and has opted out of a Dec. 6 pay-per-view date. "Lennox is taking a good, long, hard look at his career," his manager, Judd Burstein, told the New York Times. "He's not ready to begin training and felt it was unfair to everyone to hang on to that date." That news disturbed his likely opponent, Vitali Klitschko. "If this is true, then it really caught me off guard," he told his publicist. His promoter, Klaus-Peter Kohl, remains marginally optimistic, however. "Perhaps Vitali will have another fight in between and the showdown against Lewis will take place next year," he said of a rematch rumored for New York but likely to be in Las Vegas if it actually comes off.
Mandalay Bay will host a heavyweight fight between Jameel McCline, 29-3-3, and Cedric Boswell, 21-0, Oct. 3, the night before its Evander Holyfield vs. James Toney card. ... Miguel Cotto, 16-0, vs. Demetrio Ceballos, 26-4, has been added to the Sept. 13 Oscar De La Hoya vs. Shane Mosley card at the MGM. ... De La Hoya, who opened at a minus 210 in the MGM sports book, is now a minus 240. Mosley, who opened at plus 175, is now plus 200. ... Top Rank's dueling Sept. 12 cards in Las Vegas have been altered a bit, with featherweights Humberto Soto, 28-5-2, and Luis Fuentes, 23-2-1, now headlining at the Orleans and lightweight Rolando Reyes moved to the main event at the MGM. ... Fights rumored as being discussed: Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Manny Pacquiao, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Vivian Harris.
Local heavyweight Tye Fields, who is 27-1 with 26 KOs, is in the midst of a management struggle that has alienated his trainer, Wes Wolfe. Fields, who has Billy Baxter and Bob Stupak among his backers, has been shipped to Detroit to work at the Kronk Gym. He may or may not be ready for a Sept. 2 TV date that was offered to him. ... Fox Sports finally got around to televising the Cliff Couser vs. Malcom Tann heavyweight fight this week, almost a month after it occurred in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Seeing it gave the impression that both sides have legitimate beefs in a fight in which Couser lost by first-round disqualification. On one hand, Tann obviously (and perhaps intentionally) hit Couser in the back of the head at least twice, which Couser had warned him beforehand not to do. On the other, Couser certainly overreacted when he charged and tackled Tann afte r the questionable punches. Couser, whose $7,500 purse was withheld, faces a hearing in front of the California commission next week.
archive
