MIGUEL COTTO KO9 YURI FOREMAN

As soon as I saw the HBO footage of Miguel Cotto hitting the pads held by his trainer Emanuel Steward in the dressing room before the fight within Yuri Foreman on Saturday, I sensed that this was going to be a good night for the Puerto Rican fighter. Cotto looked sharp, strong and supremely ready for the 154-pound title fight. Foreman, I thought, was in trouble. So it turned out.

Once the boxers came out for the opening round, it was clear who was going to win. When Cotto’s left jab staggered Foreman into the ropes, almost, it seems, as soon as the fight started, the outcome was never in doubt. It was Cotto all the way.

It’s strange how we can analyse a fight, form an opinion and then realise in the first round that we didn’t see it right at all — not even close. I thought that Foreman looked a much-improved fighter in his win over Daniel Santos, while Cotto was moving up in weight and had been in two consecutive tough fights — the win over Joshua Clottey and the stoppage defeat against Manny Pacquaio. I fancied that Foreman could box his way to an upset win. It never looked like happening.

Cotto fought the perfect fight. He used his stiff left jab to take away Foreman’s chief weapon — his left hand. The rabbinical student from Brooklyn had no answers and was struggling from the start. Cotto, roared on by his Puerto Rican fans in Yankee Stadium, was on an entirely different level.

This was Cotto at his best, fast, skilful, accurate and powerful. The fight reminded me of Cotto’s destruction of Michael Jennings except that this one went four rounds longer.

Foreman gamely lasted into the ninth round, and might have gone longer but for hurting his right knee, the one on which he wears a supporting brace. He was outclassed, though. His one good round was the fourth, when he landed a couple of crisp right hands. Otherwise Cotto was walking through him


I thought the fight should have been stopped when the towel came into the ring in the eighth round. There was much confusion but it was later learned that Foreman’s trainer, Joe Grier, had seen enough.

Referee Arthur Mercante, however, does not have to accept a towel being thrown into the ring. When everyone thought the fight was over, it started again.

Mercante said he didn’t want to see Foreman “lose like that”. What did he want to see? A handicapped fighter getting needlessly beaten up for another round, or two, or three?

Foreman’s only chance was to be able to use the ring, get in and out and pepper Cotto. He was losing the fight even before his knee gave way. How, then, could he hope to win in a toe-to-toe type of fight with a man who was stronger and punched much harder than he did?

I felt uncomfortable watching the eighth and ninth rounds, although the ninth didn’t last too long.

Foreman was throwing punches but he was outgunned. You could say that Foreman had not been knocked down or heavily punished, but he was a compromised fighter in the ring with a superior boxer who knows how to finish an opponent when he has him where he wants him — worn down and weakening.

The end, courtesy of Cotto’s left hook to the body, was almost merciful.

Cotto showed that, at 29, he is still a formidable force. The partnership with Emanuel Steward worked beautifully. One wondered if some hard fights, especially last November’s punishing defeat against Pacquiao, might have taken a toll on Cotto but, no, his boxing and punching was as good as it has ever been. Foreman might have done well against a diminished Cotto, but the Puerto Rican boxer was in top form, and the gulf in class and power was too much for Foreman to bridge.