By Matt Stein: Former WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-1, 8 KO’s) may have lost his fight and his WBA title to Miguel Cotto on June 5th at the Yankee Stadium, but in this case both fighters came out a winner in this fight. And Foreman may be the bigger winner because it put him on the map in terms of making him known to the larger boxing public.

Before the Cotto bout, Foreman had fought a handful of bouts on HBO, but hadn’t really been involved in any fights that had him matched against an exciting opponent like Cotto. However, Foreman fought his heart out against Cotto, giving as good as he got for six rounds before his bad right knee gave out on him in the 7th.

Showing great heart, Foreman fought through the pain for another two rounds before the bout was finally stopped in the 9th after Foreman was knocked down by a left to the body. But what makes Foreman an appealing fighter for HBO to show is the way that he brought in the fans for the Cotto fight.

The ratings for this fight was the best of the year for HBO in boxing related fight, and it showed that Foreman has potential to bring in similar numbers in the future against talented opposition. If you look at the fight, Foreman appeared to be the more exciting fighter compared to Cotto because of his ability to jump around like a white Floyd Mayweather Jr., land fast punches and then move away before Cotto could land his own shots.

Foreman’s leg looked like a rag doll by the end of the fight, just hanging there and unable to support his weight sufficiently for him to fight at the same level he was in the first six rounds. Last Friday night, Foreman had his right knee successfully operated on in New York.

The prognosis is that Foreman should be better than ever in six months and ready to resume his career with two good legs instead of one good one. Little do people know that Foreman had been walking around with a bad right knee for the past 14 years since badly injuring it in a bicycle accident at the age of 15.

Because Foreman lacked health insurance, he never got the injury taken care of and instead wore an elastic knee brace to give his bad knee some semblance of support in his fights. It was a problem should have been taken care of years ago and it’s a credit to Foreman that he was able to get this far in his career with only one good knee.

It would have been interesting to imagine how well Foreman would have done against Cotto if he only had taken care of his bad knee years ago instead of letting it go this long and trying to fight on it.

With boxing practically begging for stars, Foreman is on the verge of becoming one of the new stars in the sport. All he needs is one more good fight and he’s there. I think Cotto would do good if he was to give a rematch against Foreman to prove that he can beat Foreman when Yuri is fighting on two good legs without an injury.

I think it would be another successful fight for HBO and boxing fans would likely be very pleased in seeing a rematch. I think this is a far better alternative than seeing Cotto fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or John Duddy.