Primera Hora reports that an announcement from Top Rank is expected soon regarding the rumored Yuri Foreman-Miguel Cotto clash for Foreman's WBA junior middleweight title.
Foreman and Cotto would face off on June 12 at Madison Square Garden. Foreman's manager Murray Wilson says that on a scale of 1 to 10, he'd put the likelihood that this fight is made at nine. Pretty good odds.
The weekend has in recent years been expected to host a Cotto fight at Madison Square Garden, with the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City the following afternoon. Cotto has fought Joshua Clottey (2009), Zab Judah (2007), Paulie Malignaggi (2006), and Muhammad Abdullaev (2005) on the second Saturday of June in recent years.
Outside of Abdullaev, all of the opponents have also been New York-based fighters, as Foreman is.
Honestly, I think it's a very interesting fight. Cotto has lost all of two fights, one of them with the big asterisk and the other to Manny Pacquiao. Foreman isn't a big hitter, isn't particularly quick, but will have a serious height advantage, and there are certainly reasons to think that Cotto is pretty beaten up mentally and physically at this point in his career. Foreman's very fresh, having really taken zero punishment in his entire career. We thought that he'd be stepping up in class against Daniel Santos on the Cotto-Pacquiao undercard, but Santos was old and out of shape, and Foreman had his way with him to win his first major title.
I said before that I think I'd favor Foreman right now, and for the moment, I stick with that. I think Cotto has definitely lost a step or even a half-step, and frankly I also believe Foreman is a guy whose talent I underrated. I used to think quite little of him, but he just makes no mistakes in the ring, and that's a big deal. Cotto would be the most talented foe of his career, but the size will be a factor. Miguel was not a big welterweight and could be tiny as a junior middleweight.
Here's hoping that HBO will go in for the bout, and that we won't be stuck with a Top Rank PPV. There's no word yet about that, but Cotto is a favorite at HBO (and with good reason), and Foreman's probably about as hot a name as he's ever going to be right now.