With a track record of helping rebuild prominent fighters’ careers, Emmanuel Steward raves about his new project.
Steward is in the final stages of preparing Miguel Cotto for Cotto’s world junior-middleweight title fight against Yuri Foreman on Saturday night at Yankee Stadium in New York. The bout will be the Puerto Rico native’s first since his 12th-round technical-knockout loss against Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 14.
The fallout from the Pacquiao loss was a change in lead trainers. Cotto replaced Joe Santiago with Steward, who is no stranger to taking over fighters’ camps after notable losses.
Steward helped rejuvenate Evander Holyfield after Holyfield lost his heavyweight title to Riddick Bowe in 1992. Steward later guided Lennox Lewis after his first career loss (against Oliver McCall) and now trains heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko, whose career seemed scrambled after his second-round knockout loss to Corrie Sanders in 2002.
“I have always been a big fan of Miguel,” Steward said in a conference call last week. “After meeting his people, it was very comfortable. “I didn’t make any changes, just subtle changes. I just added a bit more experience to the camp. It has been a very good fit.”
Steward praised Cotto’s conditioning and boxing skills during their recent training camp in Tampa, but the unknown factor is the physical toll Cotto absorbed in his two previous marquee bouts. In addition to the punishing loss against Pacquiao, Cotto withered in the second half of his bout against Antonio Margarito two years ago. Margarito stopped Cotto in 11 rounds.
“Anytime you are coming in with a fighter that has some very rough fights, you are concerned with the physical damage as well as the mental damage,” Steward said. “Some guys, their coordination and reflexes are totally shot from the combination of the tough fights and emotions. But I did not see that from Miguel. His boxing has been superb. All of us have been impressed.”
For Cotto, the losses to Pacquiao and Margarito became trivial to the void of no longer having his father, Miguel Sr., who died in January.
“I feel him by my side,” Cotto said. “He’s going to be with me the night of the fight.”
A former junior-welterweight and welterweight champion, Cotto (34-2, 27 KOs) is confident that he will end Foreman’s 154-pound title stint after one defense. Foreman (28-0, 8 KOs) won the World Boxing Association title against former champion Daniel Santos on the same night Cotto lost his welterweight belt to Pacquiao.
“It will be an honor for me fighting in a legendary stadium, where a legendary team plays,” Cotto said. “I am going to feel like Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.”
Cotto will not be the only man in the ring with the burden of recently losing a father. Arthur Mercante Jr., who will referee the Foreman-Cotto fight, will work his first title fight since the death of his father, Arthur Sr. One of boxing’s most admired referees during a six-decade career, Arthur Sr. died April 10.
MOVING TARGETS
Part of a Saturday card originally scheduled for Miccosukee Resort and Gaming has been switched to Tampa. Although promoter Felix Zabala Jr. tried to find a South Florida venue, his best alternative was Tampa’s A La Carte Pavillion, where he will co-promote the show.
The card’s main event still features the youth lightweight-title bout between the Philippines’ Mercito Gesta and Mexico’s Oscar Meza, but the undercard has mostly Tampa-area fighters.
South Florida-based fighters Michael Oliveira, Angelo Santana, Xavier Burgos and Christopher De La Paz had been scheduled for the undercard of the postponed Miccosukee show.
VAZQUEZ, BRIGGS WIN
Puerto Rico’s Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. made a successful first defense of his World Boxing Organization junior-featherweight title with a 10th-round technical knockout of Zsolt Bedat on Saturday night in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
Pembroke Pines resident Shannon Briggs won his third consecutive fight by first-round knockout when he stopped Rob Calloway 1:38 into their heavyweight bout Friday night in Norfolk, Va.
Briggs, a former WBO heavyweight champion, is 51-5-1 with 45 KOs.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/30/1656386/steward-has-cotto-primed-for-title.html#ixzz0pTc313z4
