Has Yuri Foreman's chin been tested?

so says Manny Cotto will be more of his old self that means LOTS of BODY PUNCHES. Guerra Cotto!!!!!!

 

I'll admit it was tangential. The original post mentioned that Yuri had been in with body punchers. I said his resume was thin. It's not a who's who of ferocious body-punchers.

 

True true. I'm kinda tired of Cotto fighting too much like a boxer. Against this taller guy he better grow some balls and become the destroyer he used to be. He needs to break Foreman down and fight on the inside make Foreman fight his fight, not the other way around. VAMOS COTTO!!!

 

Tsurkan and Roman have both been known to work downstairs effectively. They have both crossed the threshold from prospect/fringe contender to gatekeeper at an alarmingly quick and steep decline, but you can't take away that they can test your medial core resistance. Those are the guys I had in mind, and are probably Yuri's best wins after Santos (although Santos was a shell by that point, so that victory's probably a step below those two in actual qualitative terms).

 

There's a problem of perspective here. We see Cotto and say "gee, he got beat up in his last few fights, he's finished. He's done".

We see Foreman and say "boy, this kid's an up and comer, he's undefeated, boy can he move".

OK, but Cotto was fighting Pacquiao, Clottey and Antonio Margarito.

Foreman was squeaking out split decision wins over ... Andrey Tsurkan? Who one year later was blown away by Angulo?

I want to be impressed by these wins. I'm dying to be dissuaded from betting heavily on Cotto. But a split decision win over Andrey Tsurkan* doesn't help. It hurts.

* (my only acquaintance with Tsurkan comes from this YouTube clip :
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa4UZ2KUQUU[/ame] )

 

I also question the quality of Foreman's win over Santos. Santos looked bloody awful, and seemed to spend the majority of the fight just hoping for one big shot.

I do not expect Cotto to carry the weight very well, but I think this is the right opponent to test him against.

 

Pardon me for thinking aloud.

Ponder the vaunted speed of Yuri Foreman. It will trouble Cotto, no?

Now wait, after Manny Pacquiao, Yuri Foreman will seem fast?

After round 1, in the corner, Cotto is like : "Manny, Pac-man was fast, but this Yuri Foreman is lightning quick. Punches from all angles, I can barely see them coming!"

Is that plausible? The man that won ahard-fought split decision over the redoubtable Andrey Tsurkan will be too quick for Cotto, a guy who outboxed Zab Judah and Shane Mosely?

Is this a credible argument?

 

Conrad - by your own admission you haven't seen more of Tsurkan than that clip where a spent-up version is battered by Angulo. So you'll surely concede you're in no position to comment on the Foreman-Tsurkan bout?

Foreman was cut by a clash of heads early on, and basically ran for several rounds, not engaging in a very crowd-displeasing affair. He sucked it up and came back to win enough late rounds to "squeak it out", as you said. Under ideal circumstances, that matchup at that or any other time is not close on the cards. There is a clear gulf in class between Foreman and Tsurkan that the simple "SD" result in black-and-white belies.

It was a performance not unlike Andre Dirrell vs. Curtis Stevens, which stigmatized Foreman for a while as a "runner" and a very negative boxer. He, like Dirrell, has since worked to rectify his image and win back the favor of the viewing audience. Unlike Dirrell (who was just plain scared of the plodding Stevens' power), he had a valid excuse for running.

Before his rapid disintegration (arguably catalyzed by an absolute war with Jesse Feliciano shortly after the loss to Foreman), Tsurkan was a very useful B-level light middleweight and would have given Cotto a stiff test himself.

As I said, Foreman is a level above. He also holds good B level wins over Jesus Soto Karass and Saul Roman, neither of whom would be particularly massive underdogs were they in with Cotto (although Soto Karass has improved since then, while Roman - like Tsurkan - has been through a few too many campaigns in the trenches).

I don't necessarily favor Foreman outright. He does lack the power to immediately command Cotto's respect, and he's not dealt with an elite pressure fighter close to their prime and well-schooled in cutting off the ring.

What I do think is that Emanuel Steward is right to be a little nervous about the size and the style match-up for Miguel, and that guarded optimism rather than brash overconfidence in how his camp is going is the right approach.

 

Im basing it off cottos punching power to the body and what ive seen him do..i have also seen yuri fight..i believe cotto is much more athletic and skilled with the tougher body

 

At what weight was that?

 

147..regardless...he has fought tougher opponents at 147 than yuri is at 154...and knocked em or beat em convincingly...