By Dan Ambrose: Former World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-1, 8 KO’s) will be taking on junior middleweight contender Pawel Wolak (28-1, 18 KO’s) on the undercard of the March 12th fight between WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Ricardo Mayorga and the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The fight is a decent but not really a great fight, because Foreman is often incredibly boring to watch with his hit, run and hold style of fighting. Foreman is coming off a 9th round TKO loss to Cotto in his last fight in June of 2010, a bout in which Foreman’s right leg gave out on him in the 7th.

Once he was hurt, Foreman was a sitting duck for Cotto, who probably battered and then stopped Foreman in the 9th. Foreman has since had his knee surgically repaired and this is going to be his first fight after surgery. Supposedly, his knee will be stronger and he’ll more power, but I’m not holding my breath on that happening. Foreman only has eight knockouts in his 29 fights.

I doubt he’s going to knocking people out left and right unless his promoter Bob Arum starts matching him and against weak 2nd tier opponents over and over again. Wolak isn’t a 2nd tier fighter. He’s more of a fringe junior middleweight with below average power but a high work rate.

Wolak’s high work rate is what enables him to pick up knockouts. However, Wolak still hasn’t beaten anyone worth mentioning. If Foreman’s knee is in good condition, Wolak will end up receiving s boxing lesson and will lose badly. He doesn’t have the hand speed to compete with Foreman, so expect to see a fairly one-side fight unless Foreman’s knee gives out on him again.

Foreman is a kind of a John Duddy type of fighter. A decent fighter, but not really a champion level guy. Although he briefly held down the WBA title, he was more of a paper champion than the real thing. Foreman was beaten in his first title defense against Miguel Cotto, who probably has no business fighting at junior middleweight.

You have to wonder whether Arum is thinking about putting the winner of the Foreman-Wolak in with Cotto in order to give Cotto an easy win and to keep the fight in house in a Top Rank fight. Cotto isn’t very big for the division and as soon as he takes on a tough junior middleweight like Alfredo Angulo or a skilled one like Erislandy Lara, Cotto will likely take a beating and lose his title. But if Arum matches him up with Antonio Margarito and then Wolak or Foreman, he’ll be able to extend Cotto’s time as a champion before he’s ultimately knocked out by the better junior middleweights in the division. If Cotto is smart, he’ll vacate when the time comes where he’s forced to fight Angulo or Lara.