QUOTE (Gene Conleys Plane Ticket @ Jun 4 2010, 10:24 AM)
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I'm becoming somewhat more intrigued as the fight draws closer. Though let's face it, the reason this fight was made had nothing to do with the matchup itself and everything to do with each fighter having a significant New York constituency. Though I'm not sure how many Jewish fight fans are left, but Foreman can hopefully rekindle their interest.
I think that this will be a difficult fight for Cotto to win. Foreman is a pure boxer and he has enormous height and reach advantages over Cotto, as well as the size advantage of being a natural 154-pounder. If Cotto can somehow work underneath Foreman's jab and get to his body, that would turn the fight in his favor, or it could, anyway. I'm not sure how he's going to be able to do that. Also, while Cotto was always a heavy, thudding "wear-you-down" type of puncher, he was never a big KO artist. And now he's up at 154 AND facing a guy he's going to have lunge at just to reach his chin. So can Cotto hurt Foreman even if he can get close? I don't know. I'm skeptical.
As for Emanuel Steward, I'm not really blown away by his abilities to work magic on fighters. His specialty over the past couple of decades has been taking very tall heavyweights -- Lewis and W. Klitschko -- and teaching them how to use their height and reach advantages. He hasn't had a lot of success in the lower divisions. His stint with Jermaine Taylor was a huge bust. Before that he had a junior welter named Vivian Harris who flamed out spectacularly. His prize middleweight prospect Andy Lee got stopped in an ESPN fight against a "Contender" cast member named Brian Vera. And so on. I don't see any reason why he and Cotto should make some magical pairing. Steward's biggest success in the lower weights, the great Thomas Hearns, was a tall, rangy welterweight/middleweight. Pretty much the opposite of Cotto -- who reminds me more of Marvin Hagler.
Foreman is a cautious, safety-first, stick-and-move fighter. So I don't think this fight is going to be a thrill-a-minute affair. Still, should be interesting, at least a little.
Well, Cotto won the fight by TKO. Granted Foreman was operating on a bad leg by the sixth round, but Cotto was well in control before that point. Cotto seemed a bit tentative to unload the right as much as he could have. It was nice to see that Cotto went to the body more and starting using the jab again. I also liked the fact that he closed his block and closed the uppercut hole he had in it. In the early rounds Cotto was standing straight up more instead of being hunched over and trying to get inside all the time.
The reach factor was not as big of a deal as I thought it would have been. Cotto seemed to sense that he could handle Foreman's best shot and started coming more forward from about round 5 and on. Foreman hit Cotto pretty hard in the fourth round and Cotto withstood the shot. Cotto continued to press the fight more and made more of an effort to jab and go to the body of Foreman, which by round 9 would be Foreman's undoing. At some point I almost wondered if Cotto was going to use his right at all. In the early rounds Cotto staggered Foreman with some nice clean shots. The body shot that put Foreman on the canvas was just brutal. If one watches it in slow motion, one can see the shot travel across Foreman's body. It reminded me of the KO from Pacquiao vs Hatton. Obviously, that [Pacman vs Hatton] was a headshot, but my reference is more about how one can see the shot travel through the body and the damage it does.
Emmanual Steward did a good job with trying to get Cotto back into some form of a boxer rather than a brawler. As Jim Lampley had mentioned during the fight, Cotto's footwork was better. However, I would have liked to see him move his head around a bit more. Around round 4 Cotto started to go back to some of his bad habits but quickly worked his way back into form. I think at this point if Steward can break Cotto's bad habits, one has to consider what he has done with Miguel as a success. Cotto still has some things he will need to fix up, but overall I am pleased with his performance. Steward may not have a great track record with the lower weight divisions, but he has done well just trying to get Cotto to get back into form.
As for Foreman, the guy is all heart and my hats off to him. I hate that his knee buckled, but the fact that he didn't take the full 5 minutes that was offered and continued on says volumes about him. I am just not sure where Foreman goes from here. As for Cotto, I am not sure either. He is kind of stuck in "no mans land" as he seems to be a bit short for the Junior Middleweight Division, but not a welterweight anymore either. I do think that having a more reputable trainer helped as well. I am really interested to see how Cotto does from here on in. None the less, Cotto is now a four time champion in three weight classes.
