OFFICIAL WBO STATEMENT:

WBO ready to face Casamayor, Team Freedom!

The World Boxing Organization has been informed that attorneys for former World Boxing Association titlist Joel Casamayor filed suit in Federal Court for the Southern District of New York to stop the WBO from sanctioning a contest between WBO/WBA unified Junior Lightweight (130 lb.) World Champion Acelino Freitas and challenger Jorge Barrios of Argentina.

There is only one problem: The World Boxing Organization has, at no time, ordered, approved or sanctioned a Freitas vs. Barrios bout.

The WBO Executive Committee agreed, in public and televised hearings during the 15th Annual WBO Convention, November 1st, in Panama City, Panama, to a fight between number one ranked Jr. Lightweight Joel “El Cepillo” Casamayor and number two ranked Jorge “La Hiena” Barrios. The winner would then be recognized as the mandatory challenger for Freitas’ WBO crown.

Both parties agreed with the mandate and began negotiations. Suddenly, without reaching an agreement or requesting a purse bid, Team Freedom left the negotiating table for a fight against Nate Campbell and then let it be known that Casamayor would be campaigning as a lightweight (135 lb.).

Jorge Barrios is still interested in facing Casamayor to fulfill the WBO Executive Committee’s decision. Barrios’ representative Sampson Lewkowicz has approached Team Freedom on several occasions to try and reach an accord, with no avail.

Now, Team Freedom argues that Casamayor should be the mandatory challenger for Freitas’ WBO crown, without complying with the WBO Executive Committee’s ordered elimination bout.

“First they agreed with the WBO’s decision, now they want to bypass the Barrios bout and face Freitas. This we cannot allow. The Executive Committee was clear in its mandate, Casamayor must face Barrios with the winner being declared Freitas’ mandatory challenger”, stated World Boxing Organization president Francisco Valcárcel, from the WBO main offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “In simple legal parlance, if you do not have clean hands in the matter, you cannot plead in court for a Temporary Restraining Order or an injunction. That is simple common law knowledge”, continued Valcárcel, a renowned trial attorney in Puerto Rico.

Valcárcel will be accompanying WBO Legal Counsel Andrew Horn to the hearings, which will be held this Friday, May 15, in front of The Honorable Judge John G. Koeltl.

WBO/WBA unified champion Acelino “Popó” Freitas already fought Joel Casamayor, on January 12, 2002, winning a 12-round decision. Regarding the likelihood of a Freitas-Casamayor rematch, the WBO president affirmed that “it is possible, but he must first defeat Barrios to become the mandatory challenger. Casamayor is an excellent boxer, a worthy exponent of the long and illustrious Cuban pugilistic legacy. But we cannot ignore the WBO rules”.