By Mark Snow at Ringside

Mashantucket, CT- It is just a little more ink on what seems to be a body with an amount beyond it's share, but there is a tattoo above the heart of Diego Corrales that simply reads "Pain For Love". Last night Corrales proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the slogan isn't something he takes lightly. "Chico" wrested away the WBO Lightweight Title from Acelino "Popo" Freitas before the champion could make a single defense of his crown via a 10th round TKO.

The crowd in the Foxwoods Resort and Casino seemed placid early in the night but once the Brazilian drum beat started playing from the depths of the arena the tone changed sharply. A full five minutes before the fighters made their ring entrances the thumping of the drum began to charge the fans up creating a din of noise. First introduced was the challenger, Diego "Chico" Corrales (39-2 32KO) fighting out of Las Vegas by way of Sacramento, CA. Corrales was greeted with a mix of cheers and booing that sounded fairly even. Diego came into the ring quickly and with a stern all-business glare as he surveyed the crowd. Freitas' ring walk was met with nearly the same reaction as Corrales until he climbed the ring stairs. Once the Brazilians and supporters in the crowd could see him the roar overwhelmed any booing that could be heard. It was a roar that turned into a chant of some sort and it carried through the ring introductions and final instructions, quieting only when the opening bell sounded.

Freitas came out of the gate with a frenetic fury, rarely stopping long enough to set and punch, but when he did it was completely successful. The first round looked like a mismatch with the plodding Corrales hopelessly following Freitas around the ring only to be hit with straight right hands as "Popo" launched himself forward at the opportune times. At one point Freitas landed four consecutive straight right hands but wasn't able to change the expression or pace of Corrales' attack. Though Corrales did manage to land the hardest punch of the round, a left hook with a minute left, the first round was all Freitas.

The second followed suit as Corrales again found himself walking to a spot, setting his feet, and having Freitas successfully get off first with a straight right and disappear. The second gave us our first glimpse, however, that nothing Freitas was going to throw was likely to deter Corrales in the least. Acelino seemed to acknowledge this as well and spent the round in retreat. It was still a Freitas round, but not as impressively.

The third round was completely dominated by the still jitterbugging Freitas. Popo opened the round with a solid right hand and he had Corrales on a string for the rest of the round. Halfway through the frame Freitas landed his hardest right hand of the fight which momentarily backed Diego up, Freitas followed that shot up with 2 right hands to the body and took the round easily.

Round four would open with another quick right hand by Freitas who seemed intent on scoring the first blow of every round. Corrales did manage to find Freitas' body with a single hard left hook but Freitas quickly answered with a jolting short right hand of his own and the fighters left the crowd cheering at the bell as they both spent the last ten second exchanging power shots.

The fifth seemed to be a turning point. Corrales came out with a more purposeful looking jab. Up until this point he hadn't been able to make consistent contact with his always-moving target, but his corner urged him to find Freitas with any shot he could manage. During one of the fights best exchanges both fighters fired and landed good right hands. The blow from Corrales dislodged the mouthpiece of Freitas and in what would become a theme referee Michael Ortega called a time-out in order to get Acelino's mouthpiece cleaned and re-inserted by his corner. When action resumed Corrales seemed to step up his attack a bit and finished the round strongly. It is clear that when Corrales lands his punches are doing true damage.

The sixth frame saw another development in strategy shift. Freitas had been spinning and moving when Corrales got into range but now was trying to tie up when Diego got within range. Freitas manages to land more big straight right hands when Corrales gets him backed into corners but still nothing that Freitas has thrown has done much to keep Corrales from coming forward.

Freitas lands a sensational right-left-right combination to start the round. Corrales comes back with a good uppercut but is warned by Ortega for holding behind Freitas' head while throwing it. Perhaps bothered by the rule infraction Freitas begins to throw with more abandon and is hit with the best straight right hand Corrales has thrown to this point. Freitas lands another solid right and is greeted by a quick smile from Corrales who senses the fight might be getting closer to the one he'd like to see. Freitas took the round on my card, but it was an entirely different round from the rest of the fight.

Corrales comes out and lands the first good punch of the eighth round, a left hook. Freitas land a clean right, Corrales lands a good right. The fighters are now exchanging power shots in one location and it pays off for Corrales when he clips Freitas with a quick, hard left hook. Freitas dances away but is clearly bothered. Corrales follows him across the ring to the ropes and unloads a flurry of punches capped by a strong straight right and another left hook that floors Freitas. Acelino makes it to his feet at the count of 5 but doesn't look steady at all. At this point referee Michael Ortega realizes that Freitas has lost his mouthpiece again and what started as a five count quickly turned into about 30 seconds worth of extra rest time as the Corrales supporters in the arena booed loudly. Freitas spends the balance of the round buying time. A two point round for Corrales, who seemingly needed it on the scorecards.

Freitas begins the ninth round quickly with a 3 punch combination that landed but did nothing to alter Corrales path. A straight right in the first minute of the round has Freitas stunned again, and looking for space. Acelino is jabbing and moving in hopes of re-establishing the tone of the early rounds but the first time the fighters get close enough Corrales lifts Freitas' head with a sharp uppercut and floors him again with a sweeping right hand. This time Freitas clearly released the mouthpiece as a way of buying recovery time and Ortega docks a point for the rule infraction. Another strong right hand by Corrales ends the round shortly after action resumes.

Corrales looks in his corner as if he cannot wait for the round to begin, while in Freitas corner the time seems to be slipping away too quickly. Diego opens the round with a right hand and Popo seems unsteady once again. A hard right hand and two sharp left hooks pins a covered up Freitas in a corner where Corrales takes advantage and rips in another grazing right. A weary Freitas takes a knee and upon rising at the count of 3 waves his gloves both to Ortega and to his corner signaling that he has decided to end the fight.

Finally the raucous crowd could agree on something as boos rained down on the former champion. Boxing does not easily forgive a quitter, so lets hope that Freitas is able to make a full scale comeback from his first loss and a similar comeback from what is almost sure to be some backlash from the Brazilian fans who never gave up on him.

In the main support bout Yodsanan 3K Battery retained his WBA Super Featherweight title with a hard fought victory over Steve Forbes. 3K used his physical strength and power punching in order to take control early. Yodsanan kept Forbes on the retreat through the first half of the fight with a stiff jab and hard right hook. Forbes seemed to take several rounds to adjust to both the southpaw style of 3K along with the overwhelming physical strength of Yodsanan. The middle rounds saw things even out as Forbes' technical superiority would begin to show through once the attack of 3K began to fade a bit and the champion settled into a game plan of moving back and throwing out occasional combinations of power punches. However the nearly powerless Forbes (only two of his paltry 7 knockouts have come against opponents with winning records) had simply dug himself too deep a hole to climb out of. All three of the ringside judges saw the exact same fight, 117-111 on all cards without a single round of variation, giving Forbes only the 7th, 8th, and twelfth rounds. With the win Yodsanan moves to 43-2-1 35KO's. Steve "Two Pounds" Forbes falls to 24-3 with 7KO's.

Washington DC's Sharmba Mitchell opened up the night with a keep-busy fight against Moises Pedroza of Baranquilla, Columbia and made certain of his upcoming date with Jr. Welterweight Super Champion Kostya Tszyu with an emphatic second round knockout. After completely dominating the first round Mitchell found his only trouble half way in to round 2 when a hard straight right penetrated his guard. Mitchell would immediately answer by taking control again, punctuated with a crushing right hook - straight left combination that sent Pedroza to his back where referee Charlie Dwyer administered a full 10 count. The win raises Mitchell's record to 55-3 with 31 KOs. With the loss, Pedroza's 4th in a row his record now stands at 24-8-1 21KO's

Cruiserweight Felix Cora Jr. won two minor but not insignificant titles when he took the vacant USBA and NABA straps in a 12 round match up against Rochester NY's Jermell Barnes. Barnes fought a competitive fight and forced a good deal of the action throughout but was out skilled and out-quicked by the 24 year old southpaw from Galveston TX. The judges scorecards showed tallies of 188-110 and 119-109 twice. Cora Jr's record improves to 15-0-2 with 7KO. Barnes dropped his 3rd straight and falls to 16-6 with 4KOs.

Philly Lightweight "Razzamatazz" Ramazan Palyani scored an impressive 5th round TKO over Brazilian Aderivaldo Dos Santos. Palyani is now 9-0 5KOs, Dos Santos takes his second professional loss and is 5-2 4KO. Finally, Pueblo, Colorado's Marvin Cordova Jr. capped a horrid night for anyone hailing from Brazil, knocking out fellow Salvador native Luciano Silva cold in the 4th round in a Jr. Welterweight bout. It was Cordova's pro debut, so logically he's now 1-0 with 1KO. Silva picks up his first pro loss and is 3-1 3KO's.

News and Notes from the Night:

Early in the night the gentleman sitting directly behind me tapped my shoulder to alert me that I had dropped a paper from my folder on to the floor. As I turned to thank him I recognized that it was none other than Heavyweight Danny Williams, who just last weekend knocked out Mike Tyson.

I asked Danny what his immediate plans were, he said he hadn't heard yet but that his preference was a rematch with Tyson. "I want Tyson again. This time there will be no excuses." said Williams, who was clearly a crowd favorite and seemed to be enjoying his newfound Stateside recognition, signing autographs with a smile throughout the night.

Two special notes of thanks - First and foremost to Arthur and Rita at Foxwoods, who continue to do an impeccable job of making sure that everyone is taken care of properly, not an easy job with us boxing writers and photographers.

And secondly to Pedro Fernandez of Ringtalk who graciously shared space with me and proved to be as knowledgeable about the sport as you would expect of someone with his experience and reputation.

e-mail me at Snowsy1@hotmail.com