By Jason Kim: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum was incredibly honest in talking about whether former WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KO’s) has anything left in the tank going into his fight against World Boxing Association junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, 8 KO’s) this Saturday night at Yankee Stadium, in New York.

In an article by Dan Rafael of ESPN, the 78-year-old Arum, who promotes both Cotto and Foreman, said “I don’t know what to expect, but I think having Manny [Steward] can only help. Manny is a great motivator and a great teacher, and I would expect an improved Cotto. Whether, in fact, that will be demonstrated on Saturday, I have the same reservations a lot of people have. I saw the [Manny] Pacquiao fight. I saw the [Antonio] Margarito fight. I saw the [Joshua] Clottey fight. These were brutal fights.”

Cotto took brutal beatings in all three of those fights, losing two of them and coming within an eyelash of losing to Clottey as well. Indeed, had Clottey not gotten lazy in the last four rounds of the fight and stopped throwing punches, he would have had an excellent chance of getting the decision. At the end of the day, Cotto still took a lot of head shots in all three fights and there is concern by many that Cotto is on the verge of being completely shot.

Cotto still has a lot of things going for him on offense in terms of power and punching ability. That may be enough to get him by the 29-year-old Foreman on Saturday. After all, Foreman has zero power and has never been in with anyone near as talented and dangerous as Cotto during his career. Foreman bruises up and has looked tired in some of his fights against the B level opposition that he’s been facing.

If the 2nd tier fighters are able to do this to Foreman, then it could be scary what Cotto could do if he can put his hands on Foreman and stay in the fight for the full 12 rounds. Foreman hasn’t been hit before like he’ll be getting hit on Saturday night and it’s going to be a test. Cotto may or may not being on the verge of being shot but Foreman might not be good enough to expose how much Cotto has lost.

Arum says “But if you asked me in court of law, ‘Have you seen any change in Miguel,’ the answer is, no, not as far as his attitude and demeanor.” That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement by Arum about Cotto, is it? I really respect Arum for being so honest about his fighter because a lot of promoters would have blown smoke up our backsides, talking about how their fighter hasn’t lost a thing and other such blather. But Arum is man enough to dance around the subject while dropping huge hints.

The fact of the matter is no one can really tell for sure whether Cotto has lost it or not because he’s only been beaten by Pacquiao and Margarito, two very tough fighters with a lot of power and with high work rates. Just because Pacquiao and Margarito were able to do this to Cotto doesn’t mean that other lesser offensively equipped fighters like Foreman can do the same thing. It may be that Cotto can beat most of the top fighters aside from Margarito, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao. But on the other hand, if Cotto can’t beat Foreman on Saturday, it probably will be a good indication that Cotto has taken too much punishment and needs to consider retiring from the sport rather than taking additional beatings trying fruitlessly to get a rematch with Pacquiao.