By Eric Thomas: Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) captured the WBA junior middleweight crown tonight with a 9th round stoppage over an injured and totally outclassed Yuri Foreman (28-1, 8 KO’s) at the Yankee Stadium, in New York. Cotto fought incredibly well, showing power, speed and movement that he hadn’t shown in ages. Foreman looked completely out of his depth as Cotto pounded him with hard shots in rounds one through six, blasting Foreman’s face with massive shots and totally dominating him.

Foreman’s movement and size advantage was completely useless, as Cotto kept up with him and constantly hit him with stinging jabs to the head and hard body shots. Foreman had no offensive tools of his own to answer back with and his clinching didn’t have an effect in slowing Cotto down. In the 7th, Foreman slipped on the canvas and badly injured his right knee. By then, he was already well behind in the fight and wasn’t competitive.

After the injury, Foreman limped around the ring, taking shots to the head and body from Cotto. It was pretty clear to all that Foreman wasn’t going to be able to make it too much longer because he didn’t have anything to keep Cotto off of him. Cotto, sensing blood, went after the injured Foreman with relish, attacking him like thick vulture attacking a lamb with a lame leg.

It was brave the way that Foreman, now badly beaten around the face, continued to try and fight but it was no use. Cotto really teed off on the injured Foreman in both the 7th and 8th rounds. In the 9th, Cotto blasted Foreman to the canvas with a picture perfect left to the body. Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. then stepped in and stopped the slaughter at 0:42 of the round.

If there’s anything bad that came out of Cotto’s victory tonight it’s that we’ll now likely see Cotto facing Manny Pacquiao in a rematch in the near future, as Pacquiao will then get an opportunity to go after his 8th world title while boxing fans have to suffer though a slaughter that will likely be much worse than the one tonight. Cotto was good against Foreman, who had never fought anyone with good offensive skills like Cotto, but Pacquiao is a whole different matter. He’ll beat Cotto like an old drum if he fights him again. I’m hoping Pacquiao doesn’t bother and looks in another direction.