Surrendering Greatness: Part Two

Lines of history are begun, continued and broken every day of our lives. Therefore, it is in boxing that a fighter embarks upon his journey oblivious to its ultimate end and the many places, people and events that will lead him to it.

Diego Corrales and Acelino Freitas are fighters who had already written several important chapters in their lives before their meeting. It was fully expected that their actions would yield a wave of reactions, but the strength and nature of these reactions are things that could not have been predicted, and now, their realization reminds us of a harsh truth we did not expect to face.

The boxing community expects its fighters to be willing to die in the name of greatness and appears to be irreconcilably disgusted when one is willing to live for other reasons.
Acelino Freitas walked away from his WBO lightweight title, his undefeated record, the wrath of Diego Corrales and more poignantly, in the matter of his historical reckoning, the adulation of his fans Brazilian or otherwise, watching him in their millions. Ironically, TSN, Canada’s sports network screened footage of Oscar de la Hoya versus Genaro Hernandez on the day of the fight. Bloodied and beaten, Hernandez completed a round and then decided it would be his last. Jesse James Leija and Andrew Golota are but two of the many fighters who have previously retired themselves in fights and yet, they will return to contest world championships in the next few months.

Freitas has been scathingly criticized in the boxing press for surrendering the fight to Corrales and has yet to offer an explanation that might placate his critics, but without knowing the reason he did so I refuse to join the chorus of disapproval. The fighter-fan symbiosis allows the fighter to give or take inordinate amounts of punishment and the fan, simply to watch; I think it is obvious exactly who in the relationship should decide when enough is enough. Freitas’s boyish good looks and superstar status mask a warrior embedded deep inside of him, a very believable concept to the masses before the fight. To think that only the news of his suffering a severe injury would satiate the fans and media from unconscionably dismissing him is perhaps the most blatant example of boxing’s brutality not to be communicated from the fists of its fighters.

However inexcusable Freitas’s submission might be, it should be remembered that he played his part in a greatly exciting fight, something Corrales eventually won but of a magnitude the like of which he could not have created alone. The sight of Vitali Klitschko storming around the ring on that infamous night in California last year, with the left side of his face torn to shreds, begging for the chance to resume his battle with Lennox Lewis is exactly what fans expect to see. However, it was really the least Klitschko could do. He is now the darling of HBO’s heavyweight roster but he himself walked away from a fight against Chris Byrd, a fight he had dominated; if criticism can be afforded to all, a chance to redeem ones actions should also be afforded to all.

Of course it was bewildering to know that the collapsed figure of Freitas in the latter rounds was the same one that was too fast, mobile and aggressive to concede even a round to Corrales in the beginning. Corrales should be applauded for his insistence and resolve in the face of Freitas’s constant early successes but perhaps the enemy that poses the greatest danger to Freitas, as with many fighters, is the one that dwells within. Maybe it is simply that Freitas was beaten by a better fighter in Corrales, but there is some evidence that suggests that Freitas may have been nurturing an inner foe, one who revealed himself inthe now fateful Corrales fight.

Freitas is a superstar of virtually unfathomable proportions in his native Brazil. During his ring-walk, Freitas was subjected to a rather invasive interview by an over-zealous journalist; he obliged this unnecessary intrusion at a pivotal time in his boxing life with a half smile instead of being protected from it and allowed to continue to focus. There is also the fact that Freitas is bound by the responsibility of being a representative to his people through numerous commercial endorsements, a representative for his people as Brazil’s premier sportsman to the rest of the world. Finally, he must win and embody the true notion of a champion for the boxing world to accept him; that is a lot of pressure for one pair of shoulders to hold.

Despite his single-minded rhetoric, something that is largely inevitable in those who strive for greatness and have to use their fists to prove themselves, I always remember Freitas’s small comments in which he details his desire to succeed for all of the underprivileged kids living in the slums of Brazil. Hearing this and recalling the immense pressures that have been brought upon him, I cannot help but think that somewhere in this chaotic mess of adulation and responsibility, Acelino Freitas has been lost. In the hardest game of them all, if you are not thinking principally of yourself and you are the only one being hurt, how long can you escape catastrophe?

Perhaps Freitas’s career now provides the answer to that question. However, there is sufficient time for him to rediscover himself and offer an indelible riposte to the provocative question of his legitimacy now being asked by his detractors. The boxing establishment often finds itself unable to blind itself to misdemeanors committed by a fighter out of the ring. So in order to add some perspective here I feel that I should point out that those taking the moral high ground against Freitas should feel unstable if they are championing Corrales, a man who has served prison time for beating his ex-wife. Someone such as Corrales may say that there is a higher power than that of man, and we will all be judged by it. That is true. But in the relative microcosm of boxing to such infinitely spiritual matters, I say that fans who wish to be the judge, jury and executioner over a fighter should get in the ring and do a better job themselves, if they dare.

Fighters such as Acelino Freitas will never surrender greatness without a fight.

Jim Cawkwell can be reached at jam2lis@sprint.ca