By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-1, 8 KO’s) has a tough fight on his hands this Saturday night against the high pressure fighter Pawel Wolak (28-1, 18 KO’s) on the undercard of Miguel Cotto vs. Ricardo Mayorga fight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This may be a bit of a mistake for the 30-year-old Foreman to be matched this tough coming off of major surgery to repair his torn of right knee from his last fight against Cotto last year in June.

Although Foreman hasn’t fought since then, it’s a dangerous fight for him because Wolak can bring the pressure and the power in the same way that Cotto did last June. Previous to the Cotto fight, Foreman did well against fighters with less power and a much lower work rate. This allowed Foreman to fight at a slower pace and move around when he wanted to, not out of necessity. Against Cotto, Foreman was forced to shift around more than his previously injured right knee would allow him to.

The end result came in the 7th when his leg collapsed under him when he was trying to escape one of Cotto’s many attacks. This left Foreman in a pitiful state, forced to limp around the ring while the referee gave him encouragement. It was a strange fight needless to say, because the bout likely should have been stopped in the same round that Foreman injured his knee. However, he bravely fought on until he was stopped in the 9th. On Saturday, Foreman is going to be testing his surgically repaired knee while under the same kind of fire that he was under in the Cotto fight.

Anytime you have major surgery like the kind that Foreman experienced your knee isn’t going to be as strong as it once was. This is going to be a hard fight for Foreman because he’s going to be forced to move a lot to avoid the pressure from Wolak. We could see Foreman’s knee give out on him again if he winds up moving too much for what his knee is capable of.