By Jason Kim: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum reports that tickets are still available for Saturday night’s clash between Top Rank fighters WBA light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, 8 KO’s) and Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KO’s) at Yankee Stadium, in the Bronx, New York. The stadium fits 50,000, but Arum is expecting between 20,000 to 30,000 fans for the bout. The seating has recently been expanded by 10,000 to fit as many as 30,000. The seating can be further refigured if more than 30,000 show up for the fight. Obviously, Arum would be more than pleased if this happens, as he’s expecting a large walk-up crowd for the fight.
The fight matches two entirely different fighters. Cotto is short at 5’7”, much more experienced, a much bigger puncher, and very popular with boxing fans from around the world. Foreman, for his part, is taller at 5’11”, with little experience aside from mostly B level opposition and isn’t considered a popular fighter due to his running and clinching style of fighting. Foreman is a pure boxer with very little power to speak of. He mostly frustrates his opponents – and sometimes fans as well – with his movement and punch and grab technique. Foreman’s style of fighting is now unlike former heavyweight champion John Ruiz, who was known for his punch and grab style of fighting and wrestling inside.
Cotto is now trained by Emanuel Steward, and he supposedly is making some changes in Cotto’s fighting style. Steward usually works well with taller fighters like Lennox Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko and Thomas Hearns and has less luck with the shorter ones. If Steward is to have any luck with Cotto on Saturday night, he’s going to need to have Cotto try and establish his jab.
Cotto can’t just continue to rush inside and take the kind of vicious punishment that he’s been absorbing in most of his recent fights. Cotto did well with his career until 2007, when he started to get hit a lot in fights with Zab Judah, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito, Joshua Clottey and Manny Pacquiao. It could be that Cotto is just facing better fighters and his brawling style of fighting is catching up to him.
But Cotto isn’t making things easier on himself by not using his jab and trying to slug too much. At junior welterweight, Cotto was able to tear through, with the exception of Ricardo Torres, most of his opponents with his brute strength alone. But at welterweight, Cotto found himself taking a lot of punishment due to his style. With a record of 2 wins and 2 losses in his last 4 fights, it’s clear that Cotto needs to make some changes to his game if he wants to stay at the top of the division for very much longer.
It’s unclear what Cotto’s objective is in moving up in weight to take on the much bigger Foreman, other than putting himself in position for a rematch with Pacquiao. Some people think that Cotto won’t be around much longer and that he’s looking for a couple more big paying fights before he bows out of the sport and retires. But unless Cotto can avoid getting hit so much by Foreman on Saturday, Cotto may not make it to a rematch with Pacquiao.