Foreman wants rematch with Cotto after his leg heals after surgery

By Boxing News - 06/11/2010 - Comments

Image: Foreman wants rematch with Cotto after his leg heals after surgeryBy Jim Dower: Former WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-1, 8 KO’s) wants a shot at a rematch against Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) after getting stopped in the 9th round by Cotto on June 5th at Yankee Stadium in New York. However, it’s not likely to happen, as Cotto says he wants to go after only popular fighters for the big money fights and Foreman doesn’t fall into the category.

A lot of people think that Cotto chose the less than popular Foreman because he was considered to the easiest way for Cotto to win a title to lure Manny Pacquiao into a rematch. Foreman, although a good fighter, wasn’t considered to be as dangerous as WBC junior middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, who would have likely beaten Cotto.

Foreman also fights for the same promotional company Top Rank, so Cotto was in a sense helping his promotional company by fighting Foreman rather than say a more popular fighter like WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto or Paul Williams, to name just a couple of alternative fights that Cotto could have been put in.

Foreman injured his right knee in the 7th round against Cotto, and was almost helpless after that until he was finally stopped in the 9th. Foreman already had an injured knee before the fight and had been fighting with a bum knee since he was 15.

However, with all the moving that Foreman was doing against Cotto, his knee couldn’t handle the extra stress that he was putting on it and it eventually gave out completely in the 7th. In an article at the Nypost.com, Foreman said “Yes, I want a rematch. My last performance was not what it could have been. It was far from my potential.”

Foreman was fighting well up to the point of his injury in the 7th and it’s hard to say what would have happened had it not occurred. Although Cotto fought well in rounds one and two, Foreman seemed to have taken over in rounds three though five, catching Cotto with right hands repeatedly as he plodded forward.

If Foreman had been able to sustain the pace, there’s a good chance that he would have opened up some of Cotto’s scar tissue over his eyes and had him bleeding and fighting blind.

It would be interesting to see if Cotto could be Foreman with two good knees. Foreman is supposed to be having surgery shortly. However, there’s little chance that Cotto will ever fight Foreman again. Cotto has his win over Foreman and won’t be looking back.

Instead, Cotto is hoping to get a big money fight against Pacquiao, which in a way is about a pointless a fight as Cotto giving Foreman a rematch. Pacquiao, in fact, dominated Cotto much worse than Cotto dominated Foreman.

However, Bob Arum of Top Rank has few options of putting together big money fights for Pacquiao if the fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t happen, and Cotto, despite still not really proving that he’s back from his terrible beatings from Pacquiao, Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey, would likely be the one that will be put in with Pacquiao again, just for the money.

On paper, there’s really no point in the fight being made because Cotto was hopelessly outclassed last time in a way that suggests that he would never be able to contend with Pacquiao. But they both fight for Arum, and Pacquiao does have a great interest in collecting an 8th title, even though if he beats up Cotto again, it would be kind taking the easy path to winning an 8th world title rather than facing Sergio Martinez.



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