Tonight Saturday June 5, 2010 WBA match up at “Yankee Stadium” between Miguel Cotto and Yuri Foreman ended with a 9th round TKO 42 seconds into the round. This was an excellent fight for Cotto proving that he still has what it takes. I never doubted it for a moment but to listen to the commentators lose two fights in a row and they have you heading for retirement.
Cotto is a 4 time world champion but has had a rough couple of years. He first had the devastating loss to Antonio Margarito which based on several factors it was more likely than not that Margarito had illegal hand wraps for which he was later suspended for a year after the Shane Mosley fight. For me regardless of the reinstatement Margarito will never be a credible fighter in my book, nor will he have my support as a fan. I have followed Cotto’s career from the beginning and he is a skilled, adaptable fighter so his loss to Margarito was unprecedented. It has taken him a long time to recover the confidence he once fought with although he continued to fight and it will always be an undeserved loss on his fight record…and there was the loss to Manny Pacquiao. Cotto has also endured some legal issues within his family with his uncle as well as the death of his father not too long ago who was also his trainer.
I think that Cotto is getting back to normal and although I don’t have a lot of respect for Emmanuel Stewart as a trainer (look what he did with Wladimir Klitschko (European Spelling) and don’t really think he can bring that much to the table as Cotto’s trainer this is who was in Cotto’s corner tonight.
A little bit about Cotto’s opponent. This is my first time seeing Yuri Foreman fight but I doubt that I will become a fan. He is a nice looking guy and the first Israeli World Champion. Tonight’s loss was the first blemish on his otherwise undefeated record.
Now the chaos came when someone threw a somewhat white (it was the dirtiest towel) in the ring and then people started to clamor in the ring. The rub was that corner men in Foreman’s corner said they did not throw the towel in the ring and Foreman said he was okay to continue in spite of the fact that he had been beaten pretty good during the fight and was hobbling around the ring because he had hurt his knee. Now there was some indication that his corner had left a large amount of water on the canvas but Yuri prior to his knee going out fell twice making him clumsy in my book. In any case it was undetermined as to where the towel came so the referee heralded everyone from the ring and the fight continued. I’ll say this by staying in there until the final body punch when the fight was stopped was either Foreman showing heart or Forman putting on a good show because he was tired of taking a beating and I will leave it at that.
