By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is very pleased that he was able to land the Yankee Stadium to put his two Top Rank fighters Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KO’s) and WBA light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, 8 KO’s) together in a fight that could draw as many as 50,000 boxing fans in the Bronx, New York. However, if you’re a fan of Cotto, 29, this fight could end up being a horrible event for him with him getting beaten up, and possibly stopped in front of a large New York area crowd.

I guess if a fighter is going to be beaten, it’s better for him that as many people see it as possible so that he can make more money. But it’s a shame, though, because a fight at a prestigious park like the Yankee Stadium should be a little more carefully selected in my view. I think Cotto really needs more time before being put in with a tough fighter like Foreman. Cotto is coming off of a 12th round stoppage loss to Manny Pacquiao in November 2009, a fight where Cotto took a lot of nasty head shots for the full 12 rounds of the fight.

Pacquiao really punished Cotto in that fight, and it perhaps should have been stopped three or four rounds earlier when it was clear that Cotto had almost zero chance to win the fight and was just absorbing punishment from Pacquiao. After a fight like that, you would think it might be wise for Cotto to take some time off or at least face some easier foes that he can take out quickly, regain some of his confidence and rest his head a little from punishment.

In the past couple of years, Cotto had been in three wars with Antonio Margarito, Joshua Clottey and Pacquiao. And that’s just the past two years. Cotto also had two tough fights with Zab Judah and Shane Mosley in 2007. And while Cotto won both of those bouts, he was really hammered by both Judah and Mosley in their fights. He gave as good as he got, but the fact of the matter is, Cotto still took a lot of shots from them.

The bouts against Margarito, Clottey and Pacquiao were especially punishing fights for Cotto. He had the luck of a fighter that was weary from too many wars in those fights. Cotto fans feel he’ll be okay against Foreman, because they correctly point out that he’s not a big puncher. And that’s true. Foreman isn’t a huge puncher, but he does have respectable power and is bigger than Cotto and fights in a higher weight class.

Foreman’s power might be more than good enough to cause Cotto problems, given all the punishment that Miguel has taken in the past three years. Foreman is fresh, hasn’t taken a lot of punishment and is a young 29. I think this is a bad fight for Cotto, one that he could wind up being very sorry he took. It’s also a fight that seems to be filled with risks and one that doesn’t give him a big upside should he win. Foreman doesn’t have a large fan base outside of the New York area, and isn’t considered a crowd-pleasing fighter.

In a way, by fighting Foreman, Cotto is doing Arum a big favor by helping Foreman become more of a bigger name. Since Foreman is basically an unknown to the casual boxing fans, it just doesn’t seem to be worthwhile for Cotto to have taken this fight. He should have stayed at welterweight and gone after Andre Berto or one of the other top welterweights like Saul Alvarez, Mike Jones, Jan Zaveck, Selcuk Aydin or Kell Brook.

Those are all good welterweight fighters and Cotto would have done well to pick anyone of those guys to fight instead of Foreman. I see Cotto losing to Foreman and looking really bad in doing. Cotto recently picked up trainer Emanuel Steward to train him for the Foreman fight. I don’t think that will make any difference. This is the wrong kind of opponent for Cotto, and I think it’s going to end up going badly for him. And all those fans are going to see it at the Yankee Stadium.