Columnist Dean Juipe: Freitas, Corrales foresee fireworks in ring

Dean Juipe

Thursday, June 24, 2004 | 8:49 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

By every indicator, when Acelino Freitas and Diego Corrales fight Aug. 7 in Connecticut it will be an all-out war. Each man's history and disposition point to a competitive fight in which both will be unrelenting.

"I expect he will bring his 'A' game and I know I will bring mine," Corrales said this week at a restaurant in New York as the fight at an Indian casino in Mashantucket was officially announced. "I really feel it's going to be the fight of the year."

It might be.

Freitas, 28, is 35-0 and is a savvy fighter with a vaunted punch.

Corrales, 26, is 38-2 and once again has proven he will take on the very best, having already faced such stalwarts as Roberto Garcia, Derrick Gainer, Angel Manfredy, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Joel Casamayor (twice).

Corrales, who lives in Las Vegas, lost to Mayweather and split his fights with Casamayor, getting stopped in a 2003 bout but winning the rematch last March.

"Freitas is an awesome, explosive fighter," Corrales admits. "I love these kind of fights."

He has certainly been in more than his fair share of them, which may give him a slight edge over Freitas in that regard. The Brazilian hasn't quite faced the caliber of opponent that Corrales has, with his best wins coming against Casamayor two years ago and future champion Javier Jauregui in 2000.

"This is the most important fight of my career," Freitas said. "If I win, I can turn my focus on Floyd Mayweather."

Freitas vs. Mayweather? That's something of a new one, especially with Mayweather having already moved up a division. But it's a fight that could have some appeal if Freitas continues winning and moves to junior welterweight later in the year.

Freitas and Corrales will fight at 135 pounds on a card to be televised by Showtime.

"It's going to be a difficult, emotional and exciting fight," Freitas said. "Corrales is an excellent fighter and a hard puncher, but I am confident I will win.

"His style is good for me.

"He is a clever boxer and an excellent counter puncher, but I am an even better counter puncher and I'm much quicker. If and when I hit him flush, the fight will be over."

The lanky Corrales' height doesn't faze Freitas, who said "I have defeated tall opponents before."

But Corrales brings an assortment of weapons, including the desire to mix it up.

"At some point, it will be an all-out fight," he said. "There is no way this fight can end in anything but a knockout.

"How can it go the distance?"

He's right -- it probably can't.

The result: Harrison won by third-round knockout, improving to 22-2-1 while dropping Abelyan to 23-5-1.

"William made a big mistake," his manager, Garnick Khachikian, said Wednesday. "Honestly, in my opinion, Harrison is strong but he's not much better than an average fighter and William had him very frustrated in the first two rounds.

"Harrison couldn't do anything. He couldn't touch William.

"But in the third round, I don't know ... maybe William was trying to show off or something, but he decided to fight with him and that was the end of the story."

It wasn't that Abelyan hadn't been warned.

"I told him, 'William, don't fight with this guy,' " Khachikian said. "We talked about it a lot. I would say, 'William, just box.' I don't know what he was thinking when he came out for the third round."

Or even later, for that matter.

"He couldn't even talk," Khachikian said of the plane ride back to Las Vegas. "It was unbelievable. We were both very depressed."

Khachikian has since spoken with promoter Gary Shaw about getting Abelyan back on track. "Gary said he would try to get him a few fights to get him back in position (for a bigger fight)," Khachikian said of the plan for Abelyan, who went into the bout with Harrison on a 13-fight winning streak.

Also scheduled: George Walton, 15-2, vs. Jesus Mendoza, 14-4, eight rounds, middleweights; Ola Afolabe, 4-1-2, vs. Simon Diouf, 1-0, four rounds, cruiserweights; Jamar Nolan, 10-0, vs. Monroe Brooks, 4-7-1, six rounds, middleweights; Wes Ferguson, 5-0, vs. Carlos Cisneros, 5-6-1, six rounds, lightweights; Leopoldo Gonzalez, 7-0, vs. Juan Carlos Santiago, 7-3, six rounds, bantamweights; and Alex Velardez, 11-1, vs. Arthur Medina, 12-11, six rounds, junior welterweights.

Paulie Ayala announced his retirement after losing to Marco Antonio Barrera last Saturday in Carson, Calif. "I don't want to end up a punching bag," Ayala said. "I want to be remembered as a man who always did his best." He walks away with a record of 35-3. ... A paid crowd of 275 and a live audience of 400 saw the amateur card last Saturday at Richard Steele's Gym, prompting Steele to not only say "it went real well" but to add that it "was better than anything we ever had at Nevada Partners." ... Former lightweight world champion Livingstone Bramble hopes his on-again, off-again fight against Andrew Poulous will be held July 16 in Salt Lake City.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission will continue to keep 29-0 heavyweight Joe Mesi on medical suspension until he provides the results of tests he has taken since his victory against Vassiliy Jirov in March. "We're awaiting all medical tests he took since March and will keep him on suspension at least until then," NSAC executive director Marc Ratner said Wednesday. The NSAC believes Mesi has taken at least five MRIs since the Jirov fight and that there is evidence of a subdural hemotoma, which allegedly causes 85 percent of all deaths in the ring. ... Don King is talking to Mandalay Bay about a Sept. 4 card that would have welterweight champ Cory Spinks taking on Miguel Angel Gonzalez and WBO heavyweight champ Lamon Brewster in with Kali Meehan even though James Toney is his mandatory challenger.