Boxing's return to Yankee Stadium was memorable in a bizarre manner, as Miguel Cotto stopped a hobbled but incredibly gutsy Yuri Foreman in nine rounds to win the WBA junior middleweight title.

Cotto (33-2, 28 KO) did largely dominate the fight, wobbling Foreman (28-1, 8 KO) many times early on with jabs and right hands. But the fight turned for sure when Foreman's knee gave out as he slipped on one of those idiotic ring logos in the seventh round.

After Foreman's knee gave out twice in the seventh and clearly wasn't improving in the eighth, his corner threw in the towel. Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. refused the towel, and refused to disqualify Foreman when trainer Joe Grier entered the ring. The eighth round was mildly insane, really, and made no sense. But in the ninth, Cotto landed a vicious left to the body that ended the night.

Foreman lost the fight and wasn't particularly competitive, but he gained a lot of respect, I'm guessing, for a show of great bravery and guts. He wanted to lose his belt, not have it taken from him. He went out and lost it. He tried to war with Cotto on one leg, basically, and couldn't do it.

From the get-go, Miguel Cotto was the obviously more powerful and more complete fighter. Yuri Foreman is a great story and a damn good guy, but Cotto was focused, on-point, and in a lot of ways, back to what he did well before. He didn't attack to the body greatly, but did good work there, and was able to shake Foreman up consistently.

In the co-feature, Vanes Martirosyan was able to beat "Mean" Joe Greene by scores of 98-91 and 96-93 (twice). The fight was underwhelming from both, with Greene looking quite bad, frankly, and Martirosyan looking little more than competent.

We'll have more on the Cotto-Foreman fight tomorrow. Thanks for joining us tonight.

Tonight at 10:15pm EDT, Yuri Foreman will defend his 154-pound alphabet title against Miguel Cotto live from Yankee Stadium on HBO. In the co-feature, junior middleweight prospects Vanes Martirosyan and "Mean" Joe Greene will face off. Even if you're not that excited by either fight, the Yankee Stadium angle is going to be very cool and decidedly different, and I personally think the main event is a very interesting matchup on paper, even if not a likely great fight. Join us tonight!

YURI FOREMAN "The Kosher Krusher"		MIGUEL COTTO  "Junito"
	Main Event

Arum: Cotto-Foreman at Yankee Stadium has spirit of Louis-Schmelling (Telegraph)
Bob Arum said this about Yuri Foreman: "His notoriety as a fighter will help him to launch his career (as a rabbi). Incredible." Arum said this without even a hint of how incredibly awful that sounds. Since Foreman can't work until after sundown on the Sabbath, he'll get a police escort to Yankee Stadium and HBO will film it with a helicopter. I wonder if the nWo will be trailing him, or if Sting plans to repel and deliver back-handed slaps in the middle of the fight.

Miguel Cotto, Yuri Foreman on different paths at Yankee Stadium (FOX Sports)
In this article, we find out that Miguel Cotto is "finally escaping years of struggling to get down to 147 pounds." Cotto weighed in for his last two fights at 145 and 146 and I don't recall ever hearing he was particularly struggling with his weight. The author also offers that "both men ... can fill any New York arena." Yuri Foreman has never filled any arena in his life. The Top Rank propaganda for this fight is jaw-dropping.

Legendary trainer Emanuel Steward hopes to rejuvenate Miguel Cotto (Sports Illustrated)
"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." -- Emanuel Steward

Arum plays down Steward effect (Sky Sports)
Bob Arum doesn't seem to have much confidence that Emanuel Steward can help Miguel Cotto.

Yankees like Cotto to win fight in their ballpark (USA Today)
"It's going to be crazy, man. I can't wait," offers Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher. Thanks, Nick.

Yuri Foreman eager to show how tough upbringing shaped boxing career (The Star-Ledger)
"When he won the title from Santos, he was smart. Now, he will have to be smarter. When he won the title from Santos, he was sharp. Now, he will have to be sharper. Cotto is that difficult an opponent." -- Joe Grier, Foreman's trainer

Yuri Foreman, WBA Super Welterweight, to Fight Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium (Wall Street Journal)
I like the Wall Street Journal because they always call everyone "Mister."

CompuBox Pre-Analysis: Miguel Cotto vs. Yuri Foreman (BoxingScene.com)
CompuBox's pre-fight analysis of the bout. They're favoring Cotto due to Foreman's low workrate and lack of power.

This recent FanPost brought up a great idea to get everyone a bit more involved in our fight coverage, and we're going to break it out this week for the first time.

We're going to have five Bad Left Hook judges scoring the fight Saturday night between Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto. Most of the time we do this, two of the seats will be taken by myself and Brickhaus, but since Brick is on vacation, to start this idea we're going to have four open spots available.

If you want to be considered, let me know in the comments. Here's what's expected:

1. Score the fight round by round, and keep track of your scoring. Probably wouldn't hurt to write it down on a piece of paper or whatever even if you score in the live thread, because then you won't have to go back digging through everything to find your scores per round.
2. After the fight, send me your round by round scores in an email (my email address is listed in my profile here, and at the bottom of the main page).
3. Also give some type of wrap-up thoughts on the fight in that email. Doesn't have to be more than a paragraph or so if you don't have much to say or don't have the time or whatever, but something. If you want to give it a good, long analysis, feel free. I'm not exactly worried about how much space we take up. It's a blog meant for in-depth discussion, so if you want to write a damn essay, go right ahead.
4. If you're not terribly confident in writing ability, don't worry about that at all. I'm a decent enough editor on the blog level that it won't be a problem. I won't change what you're saying, though.

How we'll pick:

1. If you sign up by Thursday at 8pm EDT, I'll put your name in a hat and draw randomly. It's that simple. I'll post the results of that by 9pm EDT on Thursday so you'll know early enough. If you have to drop out, let me know and it'll be no big deal. I realize things come up.
2. If you consistently sign up and don't get picked, I'll eventually put you in a "seat" just because. It's bound to happen that people get picked often and other people keep getting shut out. I'd like to spread this out as much as possible, but random picking is the best way to do it here at the start.

And I know it sounds corny, but most importantly, make sure you have fun if you want to sign up. That's really the point for this, just to get everyone more involved, which I always want to do, and to up the community level even more. If your card completely differs from mine or any other card (official or fellow BLH judges), that's fine. You might get called nuts, you might think everyone else is nuts. It's inevitable that we have cards that are "controversial," and mine will be there too. I'm no better at scoring fights than anyone else here, which is another reason I like this idea so much.

So sign up, and tomorrow between 8-9pm I'll get the drawing results up.

With the news yesterday that Lennox Lewis is out at HBO, a leading candidate is said to have emerged, and he could start as soon as June 5, when Yuri Foreman meets Miguel Cotto.

Paul Upham of Seconds Out reported that Freddie Roach, the three-time BWAA Trainer of the Year who has been given enormous credit for molding Manny Pacquiao into the fighter he is today, is in talks to join the network's boxing team for editions of Boxing After Dark, where Lewis had worked with Bob Papa and Max Kellerman.

Roach would be used on June 5, of course, because Emanuel Steward is training Cotto. Steward is the usual "third man" in the booth for World Championship Boxing and HBO pay-per-view events, but with Lewis out of the picture, there's a hole. HBO likes to keep it simple: Play-by-Play Guy (Lampley/Papa), Bizarre Pseudo-Poetry Guy (Merchant/Kellerman), and Boxing Guy (Lewis/Steward). With Lewis out, Roach would be the new Boxing Guy.

To be honest, there are probably better options out there, but none with Roach's hot name. Shannon Briggs is a terrific commentator, and Roy Jones Jr. has worked with HBO in the past as well, and he's not exactly busy right now. Bernard Hopkins has shown a wonderful flair for the job on his appearances for ESPN2 over the years, too.

I guess this means Steward will work the May 15 fight between Amir Khan (a Roach fighter) and Paulie Malignaggi, too. And speaking of that fight, Roach is predicting a knockout within three for Khan, to which Paulie gloriously responded with this rant:

"I tried to be Mr. Nice Guy and respect Amir Khan and his perverted ways. But that is now out the window, like when round four comes and he hasn't knocked me out. Tell that pervert Amir Khan, to stick to sending photos to models, because this boxing game is a real sport."

BoxingScene.com's Rick Reeno reports today that a co-feature fight for the June 5 HBO card featuring Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium has been signed.

Rising 154-pounders Vanes Martirosyan (27-0, 17 KO) and "Mean" Joe Greene (21-0, 14 KO) will put their clean records on the line against one another in an interesting matchup. Martirosyan struggled in January with a seemingly-rejuvenated Kassim Ouma on the Top Rank Live debut. Greene, on the other hand, will be taking a very big step up in class with this one. The 24-year-old New Yorker was scheduled to face Sergio Martinez in January 2009, but had to pull out due to kidney stones. Last year, he fought just twice, against familiar stepping stones Delray Raines and Chris Gray. He decisioned both over eight rounds.

Martirosyan has the better resume overall, including amateur pedigree, but Greene could get his career back on track in a big way with this fight. He's a very good prospect whose hype has died down with his relative inactivity and lack of steps up in competition. He bought his way out of his promotional deal with Warriors Boxing to sign with The Empire Sports and Entertainment, who also represent Shannon Briggs and Hasim Rahman.

There was a lot of talk that all Mike Jones had to do was win and not get hurt last Saturday in Atlantic City, which he accomplished, and that he'd then be in the co-feature for this card. Considering the scope of this event, it's possible HBO is looking at a triple-header, so we could see Foreman-Cotto, Martirosyan-Greene and a Mike Jones fight, which would be a very nice show.

BoxingScene.com reports this evening that all the talk has come to a finality, and that it's official: the legendary Emanuel Steward will serve as Miguel Cotto's lead trainer for his June 5 fight against Yuri Foreman at Yankee Stadium.

The two teams will appear at Yankee Stadium next Friday for a press conference, and Steward is slated to be there with Cotto. Foreman's outspoken manager Murray Wilson says that Yuri's trainer, Joe Grier, will be wearing a jacket that says "Here is the World's #1 Trainer."

Cotto and Foreman are both soft-spoken guys, but God knows Manny Steward isn't when he doesn't want to be, and it sounds like Team Foreman has taken some real exception to Steward's backing out of an apparent agreement to serve as a consultant for Yuri. So you might expect some really good quotes to come out of that presser, just not from the fighters themselves. I still recall when Taylor-Pavlik I was at the pressers, and Bob Arum said Pavlik's power was greater than that of Tommy Hearns, and Steward replied, "Please. Let's be real here."

While we've debated the merits of Cotto hiring Steward because Cotto's style doesn't really play to the strengths of Steward as a trainer (whereas Yuri Foreman could have gotten a great deal of help from Steward, I'd say), I don't think anyone will argue that Steward isn't a major step up from Joe Santiago, who served as Cotto's trainer for the Joshua Clottey and Manny Pacquiao fights late year. Santiago drew great criticism for his handling of the Pacquiao fight in particular, and that started in camp. The claims were that Cotto was all but training himself, and once the fight rolled around and Manny Pacquiao got Cotto in trouble, Santiago seemed to have no answers.

Steward can be a motivator, for sure. For recent fighters in his care, it seems Wladimir Klitschko responds well to Manny's way of motivating, while Jermain Taylor did not. And maybe that's really all Miguel needs. Someone to light a fire under his ass again. His problems with his former trainer, uncle Evangelista Cotto, are well-documented, but on fight night they worked very well together. There was some brief speculation that perhaps Miguel and Evangelista might patch things up and work together once more, but it's probably for the best that they stay apart professionally. Obviously their personalities step on the toes of the other to a pretty heavy degree.

We'll see how Steward/Cotto plays out. I don't know if it's so much a hiring because Manny is the exact right trainer for Miguel, or because they could mesh well personally, which I think plays just about as big a role in a trainer/fighter relationship as anything. In two months, we find out.

In mid-February, it appeared as though Yuri Foreman and his team had reached a firm deal to work with famed trainer Emanuel Steward as Foreman prepared for his big June 5 title defense against Miguel Cotto. Steward wasn't going to train Foreman, but work with the fighter for a couple of weeks as a consultant.

Today, that doesn't appear so set in stone, and in fact, it's getting very interesting. Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com reports today that both Foreman and Cotto are battling for Steward's services. The report says that Foreman's manager Murray Wilson believes that Steward has been offered the role of head trainer for Cotto's camp, with Joe Santiago returning to an assistant role.

We've discussed Manny Steward's status as a top trainer (or not) recently on the site in comments, discussing whether or not Steward could help Kelly Pavlik, how he's done with Wladimir Klitschko (excellent, obviously), and other jobs he's had in recent years (Kermit Cintron, Jermain Taylor, etc., which didn't go as well as Wladimir has).

Steward is known mostly for making tall guys fight like tall guys. Not only is Cotto (5'7") not tall for a welterweight, he's going to be a miniature junior middleweight, while Foreman is a standard sized 154-pounder at about 5'11". Foreman will also have a five-inch reach advantage. Frankly, I thought bringing in Steward as a consultant made a ton of sense for this fight on Yuri's side. He'll want to use his height and reach, which Manny is great at refining.

But Cotto? To me, it seems the best thing for Miguel in this fight would be to get inside and bang to the body, or in other words, return to the old Miguel Cotto style, which has been lost a bit recently. He didn't even really use that style against Margarito, so you can't even argue that that questionable fight hurt that part of Miguel's game.

And that's never been Steward's bread-and-butter as a trainer. I'm not saying he can't teach or coach that, but there are better and cheaper options to work with Miguel on getting that back, aren't there? On the surface, it seems like hiring Earl Weaver to manage a team built for small ball, or like putting Bill Cowher in charge of the "Greatest Show on Turf"-era Rams.

In a seriously relieving piece of news for hardcore boxing fans, the June 5 fight at Yankee Stadium between 154-pound titlist Yuri Foreman and former 140- and 147-pound beltholder Miguel Cotto has been picked up by HBO, and will not be shown on pay-per-view, according to BoxingScene.com.

Mostly, Foreman-Cotto is a fight I genuinely like (as an idea, anyway; as a fight, I think it runs a high risk of stinking something fierce). Cotto's going to be a seriously tiny junior middleweight, but he's a better all-around fighter than Foreman, who has in the past shown a real dislike of getting hit. Lucky for him, he hasn't been hit much in his career, but for Cotto this is something of a shot at redemption, and I expect the Puerto Rico to come out with guns blazing, targeting the taller, bigger Foreman's ribcage and getting back to what made him Miguel Cotto in the first place.

But as a pay-per-view main event, this was a mediocre fight at best. Foreman isn't exciting and most of his name value is built around his story (he's training to become a rabbi, if you've never heard), and it's a story mostly known to major boxing fans and Jews. He's gotten some solid mainstream press coverage because of his unique life outside the ring, but as good as those stories are for his career, I don't think they've ramped up interest in his career that much, certainly not so much that a $40-50 PPV was going to sell like hotcakes or anything.

They both last fought on November 14. Cotto, of course, was beaten by Manny Pacquiao that night, while on the undercard, Foreman dominated another Puerto Rican, Daniel Santos, to win the WBA junior middleweight title. It was something of a coming-out performance for Foreman. Even though Santos was clearly past his prime and out of shape for the fight, Foreman took it to him and left no doubt who the better fighter was that night.

Cotto has lost just twice in his career, to Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito, the latter disputed today by many because of Margarito's hand-wrapping controversy last year. After he lost to Margarito, Cotto took an easy comeback fight against Brit welterweight Michael Jennings and thoroughly dominated him, then jumped back into the fire with Joshua Clottey, followed by Pacquiao.

But this time, he's going right back into a very stern challenge. Foreman isn't destined to become boxing royalty, but he's in his prime and again, he is much bigger than Cotto, who was pretty small at welterweight all things considered. Height-wise he's about on par with Manny Pacquiao, and there are other guys in that same range. Not all welters are 5'9" like Shane Mosley or 5'10" like Oscar de la Hoya was. But Cotto doesn't have the big frame that a Clottey or Andre Berto has, either. He's lean in his upper body. Against Pacquiao, he looked absolutely no bigger than his opponent.

Foreman is 5'11" and carries 154 well. It's a real risk for Cotto. If he loses -- which is very possible -- he's at a major career crossroads. He's already talked retirement, and I think if he loses to Yuri, it'll at least be a long while before we see him fight again. But let's get back to the real topic at hand for right now.

The fact that we'll get to see this on normal HBO World Championship Boxing is a blessing. Boxing promoters are already asking a lot of fans. After a great 2009 where the only major PPV offerings were for the three biggest fights of the year (Hatton-Pacquiao, Mayweather-Marquez, Cotto-Pacquiao), boxing is teetering on getting back into the habit of sticking too many fights behind the BUY button on your remote. There's already a PPV on Saturday, then one on April 3 (Hopkins-Jones II), and May 1 (Mosley-Mayweather).

Another show on June 5 not only risked being overkill, but because it was at best the third most interesting PPV fight being offered in a fairly short period of time, suffering from a lack of interest from fans whose wallets were starting to feel drained.

An official announcement of the fight will be made on March 22 in Tampa, where the New York Yankees hold spring training.

If you thought it was too good to be true, you were right.

Bob Arum told BoxingScene.com's Rick Reeno that WBO bantamweight titlist Fernando Montiel will not travel to Japan on April 30 to face WBC titlist Hozumi Hasegawa, despite an announcement from Hasegawa's promoter Teiken that the fight was done.

Hasegawa is tentatively set to fight on that date anyway, but don't expect an opponent as good as Montiel. Montiel will uphold his end of the bargain, as he's obligated to face Eric Morel, who scored a disputed decision win over Gerry Penalosa on February 13 in Las Vegas. Montiel-Morel has been mentioned as a co-feature on the May 8 Latin Fury PPV, which is planned to feature the return of Antonio Margarito. And now, the fight is also being mentioned as a possibility for the June 5 PPV undercard of Yuri Foreman-Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium, along with a few other bouts.

Among the June 5 possibles are Anthony Peterson taking on the Humberto Soto-David Diaz winner and maybe a Winky Wright fight, if Wright signs a promotional deal with Top Rank.