Acelino Freitas boxer

Acelino "Popó" Freitas (Portuguese pronunciation: asɛˈlĩnu pɔˈpɔ ˈfɾejtɐs; born September 21, 1975) is a Brazilian politician and professional boxer. In the sport, he is a former WBO and WBA (Super) super featherweight champion, as well as a two-time WBO lightweight champion. After retiring from boxing, Freitas went into politics, and was elected as a legislator for the state of Bahia, from 2011 to 2014. His nickname, Popó, was given to him by his mother, after the sound that babies make while drinking milk.Freitas had a difficult childhood, often sleeping on a sandy floor at his house. Since early in his life, he dreamed of a better place to live for his family. A skilled football player, he was more inclined, however, towards the sport of boxing since an early age. He was heavily influenced by his father and brothers, specially Luis Claudio Freitas.Fellow Brazilian Eder Jofre, generally recognized as the greatest world champion to come out of that country, was one of Freitas' childhood heroes.Freitas competed for his native country and won a lightweight silver medal at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata.After the Pan American Games he turned into a professional boxer on July 14, 1995, against Adriano Jose Soares. With his win by knockout in the first round that night, Freitas set off a streak of 29 knockout wins in a row, which places as one of the longest knockout wins streak in boxing history. His first 10 wins were against low level competition, but for fight number 11, he took on the much more experienced Edwin Vazquez, knocking him out in the seventh round.Between 1997 and 1998, Freitas won four more fights and then took on Francisco Tomas Da Cruz, a former world title challenger of Julio César Chávez. Freitas handled Da Cruz with a knockout in two rounds and then added three more knockout wins before getting his first world title shot.