What a night of boxing it was Saturday night before 20,272 fans in the first fight at Yankee Stadium in nearly 34 years. Former two division world champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KOs) took over another division beating previously unbeaten WBA super welterweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-1, 8 KOs) in nine rounds.
In a previous article I wrote, I stated that you couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks but I was wrong, Cotto looked good. He was able to out box Foreman with jabs and his footwork was impressive.
I doubted Cotto’s ability to sharpen up and he definitely proved me wrong. Despite his win, it was a bit controversial. Foreman’s right knee buckled compromising his footwork in the seventh round.
I favored Foreman to win because of his height advantage and his style of moving and fighting defensively. Foreman wasn’t going to beat Cotto in a flat footed toe-to-toe battle and after hitting the deck several times when he slipped despite not being punched, that was the only style he could fight and taking that away from him makes him handicapped.
I am not going to argue the fact Cotto was ahead in the score cards but a fight isn’t over until it’s over. Foreman came into the bout wearing a brace on his right knee to stabilize an old injury, an injury he suffers as a kid. He was 15 years old when he fell off a bike and ever since then, he has worn a knee brace. The brace didn’t give him nearly enough support to fight the kind of fight he needed to defeat Cotto.
Foreman slipped again later in the round while getting tagged at will by Cotto before limping back to the corner at the bell.
Considering the injury, he continued fighting as he hopped around with one leg. As Foreman’s wife sat at ringside, she yelled in frustration to stop the fight. During the eighth round, some one threw in a towel, the universal sign of 
surrender, but it wasn’t the case although dozens of people flooded through the ropes thinking the fight was over.
Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. allowed the fight to continue and yelled at everyone to get out of the ring. Cotto continued to batter Foreman dropping him with a left to the body in round nine and the bout was then waved off 42 seconds into the round. It didn’t appear as if the punch hurt Foreman as much as his twisted leg . Cotto was far ahead on the scorecards, two judges had it 79-73 and 78-74 and it was clear Foreman wasn’t going to get back into the fight under the circumstances.
At the end, Miguel Cotto won the junior middleweight title and a guaranteed $2 million for the fight. Foreman was guaranteed $750,000.
What is next for Miguel Cotto? Well rumor was that he will be getting a rematch against Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao was in attendance which kind of makes the rumor true. No word if Cotto will stay at 154 or go back down to 147 but one thing is for sure, Cotto is back!
Photos by AP Frank Franklin II
lol tijiuana i saw him at the door at the hard rock cafe in yankee stadium but i just didnt know who he was. he looks mad familiar though..
I actually agree that Cotto vs Berto makes for a good fight. As the saying goes, styles make fights, and this is one of those fights. Many of you will think that Berto will pitch a shut out, but I really think Cotto needs another big fight against against a top of the list P4P fighter to really see how much he can still compete at an elite level.
Still I would like to see him rematch with Margarito or even Joshua Clottey.
Yes, I’m crazy, so what ?? LMAO !!
I think cotto had a great fight to build up confidence i never saw him to lose this fight what he needs is a better opponent to shake off all the haters that think he is washed up give him berto will get beat bring margacheato that would be great pac man is a bit different i think after mayweather beats him down pac man woud be knockoff his high horsethen i would like to see cotto vs pacman 2 the more pacman fights the more weakness you see cant fight against yhe ropes like wit cotto (even though he won) clottey good defense mayweather has all that i rather SEE COTTO V.S BERTO
@ bori_4_life, fugetabout it lol
does anybody know who is dat italian guy with the gray tantop behind manny pacquiao??
@ love boxing,
thank you for that…
what up, fellas
Cotto look good and strong. His footworks was better and he didnt lean too far forward like he did before. Emanuel as trainer is the best thing cotto has done in a while. Yuri fought hard like a champion should, he showed heart and class and thats more than i can say about some other fighters(mayweather) for one. The ref did the right thing Yuri still wanted to fight and he did what he could. If he would have quit people would call him a chump, give the guy a little credit. I dont know if cotto should take any rematches only he knows that. all i know is that he looked good that night. congrats. cotto stay strong boricua.
I am right that Cotto would get the “W” if he’ll be fighting as a boxer. He’s a more skilled fighter than Foreman. A rematch with Pacquiao would not be good for Cotto right now. He can’t handle Pacquiao and we all know that. Anyways, Congratulations to Miguel Cotto!
To Foreman, what a heart! With the injury, he still fought hard but like all of us he’s still human, he’s really hurting with that knee. I hope he could recover on that injury soon.
Hey Edgar! Where’s the latest news on PBF? Isn’t he semi-retarded again? Oh! my bad, semi-retired I mean… This only shows how scared he is to fight Pacquiao. So many excuses from the start and now that Pacquiao is all good with the conditions, then go semi retired?! What the heck! 🙂
@jesus,I agree with you about the dubious injury
the guy wasn’t even runing .I was wondering about Forman’s running routine and how come he was able to prepare for the fight with a decrepit knee .It’s hard for me to believe that a boxer who prepare for a fight with this magnitude has a really really bad knee .The was falling like a child who just learn how to walk ,he
he he.With no offense he look so pathetic every time he fell .what about his sparring sessions before the fight!! It looked so dubious to me .
With Santos, he was fine and with Cotto the worn out knee came up nah nah.
Foreman just got exposed, he did not deserved that belt… And cotto looked the same with more jabing… He looked better against a rookie, the same way he looked when he fought gomez…
I disagree that Mercante did a bad job. A referee CAN NOT force a fighter to continue. Foreman’s corner could have stopped the fight at any time. All Mercante did was give Foreman every chance in the world to fight to keep his title.
About the injury…it seems odd that the injury was not so apparent in his fight against a faded Daniel Santos. Cotto hit Foreman with a double jab early in the fight so at some point his speed was not going to be a factor. The heavy , strong punch was bound to land. Ans it did. The left hook to the body put Foreman away.
Congrats to Cotto. He should rematch with Margarito and win if wants any kind of real recognition. Beating Foreman didn’t do that.
EDGAR Very good article and comments. Now…. ahhhhh…. before the fight I, like you, wasn’t overly confident about a Cotto victory. Yes, I picked him to win but with major doubts and reserves, I’ll willingly admit. Let’s face it, there just were too many UN-answered questions about Miguel’s condition, health and ability to compete amoung the best. He took no tune-up fight after the retatively recent Pacquiao beating, un-like the Jennings fight he took after the Margo loss. He didn’t look too great at all vs Clottey either. Those were THREE brutal fights for him aside from the Jennings fight, which was actually a confidence builder of sorts. I expected more from Foreman, even before his knee gave in.
Did I/we UNDER-estimate Cotto this time?? Or….. did I/we OVER-estimate Foreman due to his over whelming near shutout nationally televised PPV win over Santos??
Now, what does this win REALLY mean?? Should we all believe that the Cotto of old is back?? hmmmm…… Think about it.
Anyway, congrats to Cotto, Manny Stewart and my Isla Del Encanto, Puerto Rico.
Let’s be honest, on two good legs Cotto was close to knocking out Foreman. He staggered him twice with jabs. There was never a slip, Foreman,s Knee collapsed and that was the end of his fight plan. Auther Mercante Sr. was the finest referee ever to officiate a boxing match. His son should lose his license. The main duty of a referee is to protect the fighters. It was proven that the towel was thrown into the ring by his corner, and his trainer admitted that he wanted the fight stopped. However, Mercante, must have had money on the fight, acting like the President of the Yuri Foreman fan club allowed a crippled fighter to absorb more punishment than was necessary. What about the rule that a fighter is instantly disqualified if their corner people enter the ring? Let’s get back to real boxing and stop all the drama. If Miles Lane was the ref this would not have happened,
Cotto: Great boxing, great fight plan
Emanual Steward: Congrats you did it again
Yuri Forman: A lot of courage, nice guy. However limited skills and no power.
Mercante: A disgrace. Should stick to day job.
Let’s stop trying to turn the Sweet Science into story lines like wrestling.
Props for both fighters and the ref, what a great job by Arthur.
Foreman deserves respect for the heart and courage he showed, but with that being said he had no chance to win , he did land 3 good punches, but he was never in the fight, Cotto dominated from round 1 and Foreman was even getting hurt from Cotto’s jab.
Maybe we could have landed a big punch and KO Cotto, but that can happen in any fight, and the knee injury made it even worst.
Cotto in the other hand looked good, looks like he has his jab back and was moving beautiful.
I think Emanuel was the best thing that has happen to him since the Margarito fight, and although he might not be the same Cotto he was 4 years ago, he looked pretty close to it.
About Pacman, Cotto should stay far away from that match, he has a much better trainer this time, but Pacquiao speed and weird angles is not something Cotto would be able to handle this time around, it could be an early retirement for Cotto, even with Emanuel on his corner.
A Margarito fight looks more winnable for Cotto and it could put to rest an old ghost that has been hunting him for a few years now.
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