I doubt anyone could have left Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY, or turned off their remotes Saturday night not feeling pretty good about the evening’s show.
Especially Bob Arum. I doubt compared to many of his other fighters he had much invested in Yuri Foreman and the young man did a terrific job headlining a big card at Yankee Stadium. The good news, is that he can bring Foreman back as a legitimate contender.
I honestly thought Foreman lost every round because he fought like it was his pro debut. But the future rabbi showed his toughness after his injury by gutting it out until referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. called a halt in the 9th round. That’s what the viewers wanted to see and even if you were a Cotto fan you had to respect what Foreman did and respect his toughness. Foreman drops to 28-1 (9 KO’s).
And Foreman lost the fight! The winner, Miguel Cotto had many questions to answer in this fight and while he didn’t answer all of them he fought like a real pro and he also probably fought his way into a major fight against either Manny Pacquiao or Antonio Margarito. So the pressure was really on Cotto who proved a fan favorite and a pro’s pro once again improving his record to 35-2 (28 KO’s).
If you watched the show on HBO, you had to suffer through a 10-round snoozer between Vanes Martirosyan and Joe Green. Martirosyan looks like he has some talent just below the elite level but the undefeated Green was exposed as an over-protected fighter in need of an overhaul if he wants to compete again in the big leagues.
Even Manny Pacquiao was given great applause when seen on the mammoth Yankee Stadium screen. I remember the Cowboys Stadium crowd giving Miguel Cotto one of the biggest ovations of the night when he was seen on the big screen when Pacquiao fought Clottey in March.
I might have been a little disappointed if this were a pay-per-view event which it were to be originally. However, as part of the regular HBO package, not bad.
