By Carlos Young de San Felipe
On Saturday night June 5th, 2010, Miguel Cotto and Yuri Foreman faced off for Yuri’s WBA Junior Middleweight title belt in Yankee Stadium in the Bronx New York. No real action and no real dominance although Cotto was winning most of the rounds up to the point in the fight whereby Yuri became a cripple, the 7th round.
Yuri foreman is a fighter that has very little punching power and survives tough fights by moving around and circling the opponent only stopping occasionally to throw a brief combination. If Yuri doesn’t have his ability to move he is a dead duck, no question. It’s the one thing you don’t want to happen to Yuri, a leg injury, because if it does happen he can’t hold off an attack, he has no power.
Well, Yuri is moving and circling, then stops and plants his right leg and his knee gives way and he goes to the floor in pain. At that moment the fight should have been stopped, right then, but no, while wincing in pain Yuri is encouraged by the referee Arthur Mercante Jr. to continue. His knee is killin’ him with pain but Arthur didn’t think the fight should end that way so he instructed Yuri to just walk it off, “ya got five minutes” he said. He then began to nag Yuri with up dates on his condition while the five minutes were ticking away. I think he gave him about two minutes to return to fighting. At this point in the fight Yuri is no doubt a visible cripple.Yuri Foreman’s wife is in a panic because they won’t stop it, because honestly he’s crippled at this point and its real cruel to ask him to continue to fight, he can’t move away from the attack, he can’t save himself, he has no power. Yuri is fighting on one leg.
But you see it was important for Cotto to get the TKO win not a decision due to injury. Bob Arum can’t work his match making magic if Cotto doesn’t win by TKO to get the belt. Aren’t the referees supposed to look out for safety of the fighters? They threw the towel in and that wasn’t enough for the referee, he cleared the ring of bodies and started the fight all over again. Hey, man he’s Cripple!!
I just don’t get why the referee doesn’t understand that Yuri can’t win any fights standing still, he never has and won’t ever be able to and especially if he’s injured or crippled I should say. Yuri Foreman win’s because he can move constantly for 12 rounds while stopping on occasion and scoring with a combination and then back on the legs. Yuri’s style helps Cotto’s style because Yuri is moving away while Cotto is coming in. With this style combination it appears as if the fighter going forward is making the fighter circling and going backwards cautious and afraid when in fact it’s just a style difference. Yuri was never hurt not even when he became a cripple was he hurt. Cotto will get credit for knocking Yuri down in the 8th round and ending the fight with a body punch but the reality is Yuri slipped while trying to get away with the bad leg. He was severely crippled by the injury.
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