Will there be a lesson learned for Cotto on Saturday against Foreman?

By Boxing News - 06/04/2010 - Comments

By Dave Lahr: In looking at today’s weight-in between Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KO’s) and WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, 8 KO’s) it was bizarre at how small Cotto looked compared to Foreman. Seriously, Cotto looked like Foreman’s kid brother when they were next each other. I’m not saying they looked alike in facial features but rather Cotto was so small next to Foreman, it was like Foreman was having his little brother tagging along with him.

Now maybe by observations are meaningless come Saturday. Cotto could turn around and expose Foreman as a weak-chinned pretender. But then again, maybe Foreman, 5’11”, with his much bigger size compared to the tiny 5’7″ Cotto, could literally wipe the canvas with Cotto all night long in a one-sided beating that the Yankee Stadium crowd won’t soon forget. That’s the thing. When you got an ambitious small fighter stepping up in weight to go after the WBA title, which is in effect Pacquiao bait, things can go wrong and Cotto could find himself just too small to do anything against Foreman.

Goodness knows, Cotto has taken enough beatings to last him a lifetime in the past three years and can’t really use anymore you would think. I think Cotto is going to be making a sizable mistake in reaching a step too far by going after the Manny bait title. I think everything is going to fall apart for Cotto early on as Foreman starts to tear Cotto’s face apart with his jabs, right hands a skillfully landed head butts. I thinks its going to get really bloody and really messy before long.

After awhile, it’s probably going to dawn on Cotto that he made a big mistake in trying to go up in weight rather than just staying put in the welterweight division where he isn’t at such a disadvantage like he is in moving up in weight. However, it’s going to be a painful lesson for Cotto, because for one it’s going to occur in front of at least 20,000 of his fans who will be coming to the Yankee Stadium in hopes that Cotto will end his losing streak and look good for once.

The other thing is that Cotto is going to be experiencing a lot of pain in the ring against Foreman. It’s not that Foreman is a huge puncher, but he’s going to be inflicting slow pain over 12 rounds against Cotto and probably causing Cotto a lot of pain every once in awhile when he catches Cotto with head butts. That’s part of the game when you fight Foreman. It’s almost a given that you’re going to get hit with at least a half dozen nice head butts and there will be blood.

It’s no big deal if you’ve mentally prepared yourself to be ripped up by a head butt or three, but if you go into the fight thinking it’s going to be a traditional bout without the billy goat action, you’re going to be upset and disappointed when the head butts start flying. But I think it’s going to be a bitter lesson for Cotto about what happens when you try to move up in weight.



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