By Matt Stein: Strangely enough, the real star of Saturday’s fight between WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-1, 8 KO’s) and Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) was probably Foreman, the loser of the fight, rather than Cotto. The heart that Foreman showed after injuring his right knee in the 7th round was simply incredible. Foreman, fighting on one leg, limped around the ring, firing punches in desperation to try and fight off the stronger Cotto.

Foreman might as well have had one of his legs cut off completely, because in effect that’s what he was left with. He wasn’t to use his right leg for anything more than a rickety stick to keep his body upright from rounds seven through nine. Taking massive punishment, Foreman kept firing back shots, catching Cotto with some really nice right hands during this time.

Had Foreman any real power, he might have had Cotto bloodied and battered in the same way that Antonio Margarito, Joshua Clottey and Manny Pacquiao all had with Cotto recently. However, it was not to be. Foreman, who some people see as the equivalent of Paulie Malignaggi of the junior middleweight division, didn’t have enough power to keep the harder punching Cotto off him.

Eventually, Cotto landed a nice left to the body in the 9th that put Foreman down on the canvas in a slightly delayed reaction. The referee Arthur Mercante Jr. stepped in and stopped the fight at that point at 0:42 of the 9th. Foreman sprang to his feet, ready to continue fighting as before. I think Cotto would have literally had to knock Foreman out cold to keep him from getting up and continuing the hopeless fight.

But Foreman really comes out of this fight shining instead of stinking up the place. He may not be a huge star yet, but with the visibility from this fight and the favorable impressions that Foreman left on a lot of people, he definitely made a name for himself from this one fight alone. Now if Foreman’s right knee heals properly, he could be back in action soon against someone good and I can see that fight being picked up by HBO, who had to like what they saw from Foreman.

Foreman showed heart, charisma and a sense of drama that made one almost forget about Cotto in the ring and focus entirely on the performance of Foreman. The guy has got incredible talent. he just needs to develop a little more power and work on his bad leg and I think he can win another title in the junior middleweight divsion. I’d love to see a rematch between Foreman and Cotto. I think that would be a great fight. I don’t see it happening, because Cotto is going after big game now but I think Foreman more than deserves a rematch given the injury that occurred. I could be wrong, but I think Foreman could be a huge star in the near future if his promoter Bob Arum continues to put him in with good opponents like Cotto.