Cotto-Foreman could be announced soon

By Boxing News - 02/06/2010 - Comments

Image: Cotto-Foreman could be announced soonBy Chris Williams: According to Boxing Fanhouse, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is near to reaching a deal between World Boxing Association light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, 6 KO’s) and former WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KO’s) for a fight that will be taking place on June 12th, at the Madison Square Garden, New York, New York. Apparently, this is a fight that both Cotto and Foreman want. It’s hard to imagine what Cotto, 29, sees in this fight.

Arum says “I have discussed the fight with the Cotto people, and we’re trying to decide whether we should do it on pay per view or on HBO. I just need to put it together and finalize everything.” I know for me, I wouldn’t want to pay to see Cotto fight Foreman for the WBA light middleweight trinket. That doesn’t interest me in the slightest and I can’t imagine paying $40 to see Cotto-Foreman. Foreman is hardly a well known fighter, and the light middleweight division isn’t one that’s well respected with boxing fans.

If Cotto beats the little known Foreman and picks up the WBA light middleweight title, it could have zero meaning other than Cotto winning a paper title over an obscure fighter. This isn’t a fight that matches two well known stars. Cotto is the star here, and Foreman appears to be along for the ride and the one who will benefit by getting a name for himself regardless of what happens in the fight.

Cotto might be better off scraping this fight and going after a well known welterweight like World Boxing Council champion Andre Berto or after the IBF welterweight champion Jan Zaveck. At least those fights would be in Cotto’s weight class. Cotto is considered small for a welterweight at 5’7”, and for him to be considering moving up in weight to face a much bigger fighter like the 5’11” Foreman, it seems like Cotto isn’t thinking things through clearly.

Foreman is someone that Cotto will get little credit for if he beats, and the title won’t mean much even if Cotto does win it. The talent in thin in the light middleweight division, but there’s few stars for Cotto to fight there, and there’s a real chance that Cotto will take a beating if he takes on some of the bigger light middleweights like Alfredo Angulo and Kermit Cintron.

However, besides those fighters, this is a division that is mostly awful and Cotto could probably hold onto the WBA title for a couple of years without too many problems as long as he avoids Angulo and Cintron. However, I don’t see the point in going after Foreman’s title because few boxing fans will care and there’s a real chance that Foreman will beat Cotto.

Foreman is a fighter that is hard to hit because he moves a lot. The fight will take place on his terms because of his reach and in and out style of fighting. It’s a bad match-up for Cotto no matter how you look at it, and I can’t see the helping him any in the long run. It will help Foreman and make him more valuable to Top Rank, his promotional company, but I see it as a bad choice for Cotto.



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