PHOENIX (AP) Acelino Freitas' trademark aggressiveness, not his vaunted punching power, kept him unbeaten.

Freitas, the WBA and WBO junior lightweight champion, retained his 130-pound crowns Saturday night with a 12-round decision over Daniel Attah, the WBO's top-ranked contender.

It was the first loss for Attah (20-1-1), a Nigerian who seemed to get stronger as the fight went on.

"We trained to go 12 rounds," Freitas said through Oscar Suarez, his trainer and interpreter. "We weren't fighting for a knockout. We were fighting for a win."

Freitas (32-0) knocked out his first 29 opponents, but the pace has slowed against tougher foes away from his native Brazil.

He went the distance for the first time on Sept. 29, outpointing Alfred Kotey in 10 rounds in Miami.

Then, on Jan. 12, he unified the 130-pound division, taking the WBA title away from Joel Casamayor in Las Vegas in a 12-round decision. The Attah fight was his first WBA defense, but his eighth of the WBO title he won by knocking out Anatoly Alexandrov in Cannet, France, on Aug. 7, 1999.

Freitas aggravated a hand injury against Casamayor and hadn't fought since.

Judges Curtis Wilson, Guy Jutras and Raul Caiz all scored the fight 117-110 for Freitas and gave the seventh round to Attah, but differed on the other rounds.

Wilson had Attah winning the third round, while Jutras gave the 10th to Attah. Caiz scored the seventh and 12th rounds 10-9 for the challenger.

Freitas pushed the pace throughout the first six rounds, but couldn't drop the well conditioned Nigerian challenger.

"He's a hard guy to knock down," Suarez said. "Acelino got a little desperate trying to knock him out."

Attah's resilience was helped by two stoppages - in the sixth round when the lights at the new Dodge Theater went out for about 30 seconds, and in the 10th when referee Bobby Ferraro ruled that Freitas threw a low blow backing away. Attah, who did not appear to be affected by the punch, squatted in his corner for the allowable 60 seconds before resuming the fight.

Wilson and Caiz scored the 10th even, but Jutras thought Attah won it, 10-8.

Attah, who declined to be interviewed, won the seventh after throwing a left hook that gave Freitas a bloody nose.

But he was too far behind, and wasn't able to land a knockout punch in the later rounds.

In the 12th, Freitas danced away the last minute with his hands in the air to show that Attah wasn't the aggressor.

In a secondary main event, Antwun Echols stopped Richard Grant 59 seconds into the third round to win his third shot at an IBF title.

It was the 24th knockout for Echols (28-4-1), the NABF super middleweight champion. He retained that title and earned a mandatory shot at IBF 168-pound champion Sven Ottke of Germany.

Both fights were televised by Showtime.

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