By Elisinio Castillo

Arena Santos in Sao Paulo, Brazil - Former two-division world champion Acelino “Popo” Freitas (40-2, 34 KOs), 39-years-old, returned to the ring for the first time in three years with a third round stoppage of Mateo Veron (21-17-2, 4 KOs). The fight was held at the junior middleweight limit.

Veron was overmatched from the start, going down in round one and then three times in round three.

Freitas was last in the ring in June of 2012, when he stopped undefeated Michael Oliveria in nine rounds, also at junior middleweight. Going into that fight Freitas was snapping a five year layoff.

Freitas last held a world title at the lightweight limit of 135-pounds. He was stopped by Juan Diaz in a 2007 WBA/WBO unification fight, and Freitas went into retirement following the contest.

There is no telling how, or how brief, this latest comeback by Freitas will be.