By Sean McDaniel: Photo Tom Casino/Shoetime: Former WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-1, 8 KO’s) makes his first appearance since injuring his right knee badly in his 9th round TKO loss to Miguel Cotto in his last fight in June of last year. Foreman, who actually came into the Cotto fight with a knee that had been torn up years ago in a bicycle accident, fought well against Cotto until his knee gave out completely on him in the 7th.

Foreman came into the fight with a knee brace, but that wasn’t going to help him when Cotto started putting a lot of pressure on him with huge shots. Foreman eventually was forced to limp around the ring from rounds seven until he was finally stopped with a body shot in the 9th. After the defeat, Foreman had his bad knee surgically repaired and his fight against junior middleweight contender Pawel Wolak (28-1, 18 KO’s) on March 12th, will be the first time that Foreman has tested his knee in the ring.

Foreman could have taken an easy opponent for this fight but wanted to take on a top contender so that he could immediately get back into the thick of things in the junior middleweight division. Wolak is a good fighter and likes to put a lot of pressure on his opponents the same way that Cotto does. This isn’t going to be a fight where Foreman doesn’t have to use his legs. He’s going to have to move around a lot if he wants to keep from getting into a war with Wolak, and if Foreman’s leg isn’t 100% healed, he could end up re-injuring it. If that happens, Wolak will easily beat Foreman and ruin his comeback fight.