COTTO-FOREMAN TITLE FIGHT ON ABS-CBN
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 03 Jun 2010
Continuing its drive to give Filipino fight fans some of the best championship boxing both here at home and from abroad, the giant broadcast network will telecast the light middleweight title fight between former WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto and reigning WBA light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman at New York?s state-of-the art Yankee Stadium on Sunday, Manila Time.
The fight card will be telecast on Studio 23 at 11:00 a.m. with a replay on ?Sunday?s Best? at 10:45 p.m. over the pre-eminent Channel 2.In an interesting undercard Poland's Pawel Wolak who is also a light middleweight with a record of 26-1, with 17 knockouts battles James Moore of Ireland who has a record of 17-2 with 10 knockouts. One of Moore's setbacks was a ten round unanimous decision loss to Foreman on December.
There is more than one fascinating aspect to this fight. Should the efforts to negotiate a super-fight between pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao and undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr fail and should Cotto win over Foreman, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has spoken of the possibility of a rematch with Pacquiao who scored a 12th round TKO over Cotto last November.
Arum indicated that Pacquiao who has won seven world titles in seven weight division might wish to cement his place in history every further by winning an eighth world title although 154 pounds appears too much for the 147 pound champion even though Cotto, in an effort to redeem himself after the Pacquiao defeat, has moved up in weight to make the title fight.
Should Foreman win Pacquiao has indicated he wouldn?t tangle with Foreman who is simply too tall and has a much longer reach and wouldn?t make for an entertaining fight.
The other fascinating aspect of the Foreman ? Cotto showdown is that Foreman (28-0, 8 KOs), a 29-year-old from Brooklyn, NY is the first orthodox Jew to win a world championship in nearly 75 years.
A Top Rank pre-fight backgrounder said Foreman was born in Gomel, Belarus, and raised in Israel before he eventually emigrated to Brooklyn. The 2001 New York Golden Gloves Champion turned pro in 2002 and began studying to become a rabbi three years ago.
Foreman knocked down defending champion Daniel Santos in the final round of their November 2009 rumble in Las Vegas (ironically on the undercard of Pacquiao-Cotto) en route to a decisive and unanimous decision victory while becoming Israel?s first world champion fighter.
Cotto (34-2, 27 KOs), from Caguas, Puerto Rico, has held a world title every year since 2004 and will be looking to extend that streak with his challenge of Foreman. Puerto Rico?s most exciting fighter, Cotto held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior welterweight crown from 2004-2006, successfully defending it six times before vacating it to capture the World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight title at the end of 2006, a title he held for nearly as long.
Cotto won his second welterweight title in February 2009, knocking out Michael Jennings in the fifth round to become the WBO welterweight champion. He lost the title in his second defense, last November, to Manny Pacquiao. Notable scalps on Cotto?s belt include Sugar Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, Joshua Clottey, Paulie Malinaggi, and Demarcus Corley.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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