Miguel Cotto Vs Yuri Foreman Fight Preview
Boxing returns - and debuts - at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night when Miguel Cotto challenges Yuri Foreman for the WBA junior middleweight title. It’s the first boxing match held at the “new” Yankee Stadium (which opened last year for baseball), although the sport has a rich and colorful history at the original venue. The last fight there was on September 28, 1976 when Muhammad Ali defeated Ken Norton.
This match-up certainly lacks the gravitas of some of the previous epic encounters waged at Yankee Stadium, but it does have a lot of intrigue. For one thing, the fighters represent two of the largest and most vocal minority groups in New York - Foreman is an orthodox Jew originally from Israel while Cotto is Puerto Rican. If nothing else, the fight should be a highly entertaining spectacle if only for everything that will surround it.
As for the bout itself, it also has the potential to be extremely intriguing. For Cotto (34-2, 27 KOs), this is likely his last chance to prove that he has something left in the tank. There’s no doubt that Cotto has accomplished a lot in his career, and winning on Saturday night would allow him to claim a world title in a third weight class. But a loss would be his third in his last five fights and could signal an end to his days as a legitimate headlining fighter and title contender.
Meanwhile, Foreman (28-0, 8 KOs) is simply trying to prove that he belongs in the discussion of current top-level fighters. Despite winning the world title against Daniel Santos this past November, Foreman has yet to earn the respect he feels he deserves from the boxing community. Part of this stems from his unusual decision to continue with his rabbinical training while boxing, which some veteran observers feel does not show a full commitment to the sport. Other critics simply believe that he lacks the punching power needed to be a dominant fighter within the division.
This fight is a classic match-up between one fighter who is fresher and more skilled as a technical boxer coming up against a tough veteran with knockout power but who might be getting long in the tooth. In Cotto’s prime, winning this fight might have been an easy task. In fact, he had an easy time against a similar opponent in 2006 when he scored a comfortable unanimous decision victory over Paulie Malginaggi. However, Cotto has been in several wars since then, and he didn’t look particularly impressive in his last fight against Manny Pacquiao, raising questions about if the previous battles have sapped his energy.
However, few people look particularly impressive against Pacquiao, and Cotto was able to withstand everything Pacquiao could deliver while dishing out some punishment on his own. With the lack of power that Foreman possesses, it’s likely that Cotto will be able to walk through Foreman’s shots in order to trade punches with the champion - something that does not favor Foreman.
Foreman is a very awkward match-up for any fighter - he has an innate ability to slip punches and find ways to counter punch that springs from his extensive amateur background. If he is able to keep Cotto off-balance and out of reach from delivering a big punch, then it’s certainly conceivable that he could stay in the fight while racking up rounds.
However, the reality is that Foreman has never faced a fighter with as much experience, discipline or power as Cotto. While Cotto might not be the same fighter as he was a few years ago, there’s little reason to think that he won’t be able to slow down Foreman enough to take advantage of him in the later rounds.
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