By Keith Idec
NEW YORK — Yuri Foreman has received more publicity prior to his fight against Miguel Cotto than he had throughout the first eight years of his career.
His highly unusual life story, coupled with winning the WBA super welterweight title, made this genuinely humble champion a promoter’s dream, everything Bob Arum assumed Foreman could become when executives at HBO and Showtime weren’t interested in broadcasting Foreman’s fights. Suddenly, this all-but-ignored boxing rabbinical student surfaced everywhere.
ESPN featured Foreman on its “E:60” show. He appeared on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and Versus’ “The Daily Line,” before a once-improbable promotional tour concluded Friday night with an interview on FOX News’ “On The Record, with Greta Van Susteren.”
There also are billboards all over New York bearing the undefeated Foreman’s face, more sure signs that Brooklyn’s Foreman’s American dream has come true 11 years after he left Israel with little more than the clothes on his back.
But for all the masterful marketing Top Rank Inc., Foreman’s promoter, has done recently, Foreman and his handlers realize that the undefeated Foreman hasn’t quite convinced everyone that he’s capable of beating a fighter as accomplished and talented as Cotto (34-2, 27 KOs). They know Foreman will be brought to Yankee Stadium tonight, albeit by police escort, to help Cotto look ready for one last run at the elite level after absorbing brutal beatings against Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito within a 15-month span.
They’re certain Cotto came up to 154 pounds to face Foreman only because he has just eight knockouts in 29 professional fights. And, quite frankly, this is just the type of pre-fight perception they prefer to encounter.
“I like the fact that a lot of people don’t take Yuri seriously yet, because he’s such a boxer,” said Joe Grier, Foreman’s trainer. “They’re not threatened by him. But they need to be threatened by his intelligence, because he’s one of the most intelligent boxers on the planet right now. They’ll learn one way or the other to respect him.”
Even his harshest critics credited Foreman for his dominant performance against Daniel Santos (32-4-1, 23 KOs, 1 NC) on the Pacquiao-Cotto undercard Nov. 14 in Las Vegas. Foreman (28-0, 8 KOs, 1 NC), a 2-1 underdog entering their fight for Santos’ WBA 154-pound title, thoroughly out-boxed the supposedly stronger, left-handed Santos and even dropped Santos twice en route to a wide win on all three scorecards (117-109, 117-109, 116-110).
Foreman fought in an entertaining manner against Santos, too, an improvement even the Internet writer who dubbed him Yuri “Boreman” acknowledged.
Predictably, disclaimers came along with Foreman’s career-changing victory, too.
Santos reportedly wasn’t close to being in tip-top shape because he took the fight on somewhat short notice. The 34-year-old Santos was rusty as well because he hadn’t fought in 16 months before facing Foreman.
Those factors, in addition to Cotto’s superior resume, are among the reasons Foreman is again about a 2-1 underdog entering a fight that’ll headline an HBO “World Championship Boxing” doubleheader scheduled to begin at 10:15 p.m.
Cotto also has won huge fights on gigantic stages, before big crowds in New York. Foreman, who twice fought on Cotto’s undercards, has headlined shows only in such smaller venues as the Adrian Phillips Ballroom at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, the Aviator Sports Arena in Brooklyn and the Paradise Theater in the Bronx.
That’ll all change tonight, when the aspiring rabbi will encounter Cotto in the first main event at the new Yankee Stadium, where a crowd between 20,000 and 25,000 is expected.
Emanuel Steward, Cotto’s new trainer, believes those fans will be treated to a very competitive fight. Steward considered an offer from Murray Wilson, Foreman’s co-manager, to join Grier in helping prepare Foreman for the Cotto fight, before instead deciding to train Cotto.
“Everyone is focused on what Miguel has left and his style,” Steward said. “Regardless of what preparation you have, Yuri is a very talented and underappreciated fighter who has an extremely difficult style for anyone. Recently, when I was in Vegas for the Mayweather-Mosley fight and I was speaking to Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns, they said I’ve got my hands full. As good as Miguel will look, it will always be a tough fight because of [Foreman’s] style.”
While difficult to counter, Foreman’s movement-driven style has made him a tough sell to thrill-thirsty fight fans and network executives who provide the large license fees that pay purses. Even as the champion making a title defense in his adopted hometown, he’ll make less money than Cotto tonight.
Overcoming Cotto, New York’s top ticket-seller of the 21st century, would change Foreman’s financial future. The impact a win would have on Foreman’s career isn’t lost on Steward, either.
“I think Yuri is a very talented fighter,” Steward said, “and on this night he is going to be so wired up with the Jewish fans, and he is looking at his chance to become a big star with the New York crowd and the boxing world. So I feel he is going to fight the best fight of his life.”
Win or lose, promoting Foreman to the point that he’s headlining a card at Yankee Stadium has been gratifying for Arum, who believed he could build Foreman into a star when others didn’t share his vision.
“I looked at the fact that he had ability, and secondly, that he was marketable,” Arum said. “Without ability, you’ve got nothing. With ability, and being marketable, the upside was tremendous. And luckily I have [matchmaker Bruce] Trampler telling me about his ability and so forth.
“[Foreman’s critics] tried to wreck his career, and really the thing I’m so proud of is we did it with our own [bleeping] money. We didn’t have one HBO date, not one Showtime date. We did it with our own money with this kid.”
If Foreman’s beats another favored Puerto Rican opponent tonight, the highest-profile foe he has faced, Arum assumes he’ll have another unquestionable star to promote to both boxing fans and casual sports fans.
“If Yuri happens to win this fight, he’ll be absolutely huge,” Arum said. “Huge. Huge.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.
