Saturday Night Boxing Report

ByCurtis McCormick

Brazil’s Acelino Freitas led the way last night in the world of boxing, completing his return from a disastrous loss to Diego Corrales by winning the vacant WBO Lightweight crown via a split decision over difficult southpaw Zahir Raheem. The Banner Promotion from Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut was a good one as Freitas and Raheem went back and forth over the course of the fight, the South American taking an early lead only to see the Philadelphian steam back before both men gave it their all in a furious twelfth and final round. When the smoke cleared in was Freitas who emerged the winner on two of the three scorecards. In other action, former US Olympian Andre Ward prevailed in a light middleweight contest, stopping Andy Kolle after the sixth round due to swelling around Kolle’s eyes.

Don’t miss our exclusive ringside report from the Freitas – Raheem fightcard coming soon

At the Coushatta Casino and Resort in Louisiana, ex-IBF Light Middle Champion Raul Marquez battered Miguel Hernandez before stopping the journeyman in the ninth on a Bayou Promotion. Marquez was returning from a two year layoff following a one sided loss to current middleweight world champion Jermain Taylor. Also, top women’s super middle Ann Wolfe made short work of Cassandra Geiger in a rematch, stopping the well seasoned veteran in the second round.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, triple champion Alex Arthur retained his European Super Feather belt when opponent Sergey Gulyakevich was cut above the eye in the seventh round and the bout stopped. The hard hitting Belarussian had points deducted in the six and seventh rounds and was well behind at the time of the stoppage, with Arthur declared the winner by way of technical decision. Also on the Sports Network bill, Andy Morris retained his British Featherweight title with a points win over challenger Rendall Munroe and Colin McNeil shocked fellow Scotsman Gary Young with a first round knockout to win an official British Welterweight title eliminator.

Guaynabo, Puerto Rico saw Ivan “Iron Boy” Calderon keep his WBO Minimumweight title with a ninth round stoppage over Miguel Tellez on a Top Rank promotion. Longtime former IBF Flyweight kingpin Irene Pacheco won an IBF eliminator for the number two spot of that organization’s bantamweight rankings with a unanimous decision over veteran Mexican campaigner Heriberto Ruiz. Also, light welter Henry Bruseles had to get off the floor in order to defeat former WBC Lightweight titlist Cesar Bazan over ten rounds.

In Stuttgart, Germany, light welter Andreas Kotelnik moved closer to a world title shot as the German based Ukrainian swept a wide twelve round unanimous decision over Richard Reina
to retain the WBO Asia Pacific and WBA Intercontinental titles on a Universum promotion.
Ex-European Champ and WBO title challenger Luan Krasniqi posted a ten round unanimous decision over well traveled veteran David Bostice at heavyweight.