Strange Bronx tale as Foreman to delay Cotto clash until end of Sabbath
New York-based Foreman, 29, is set to make the first defence of his WBA light-middleweight title against three-time world champion Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KOs) at the newest incarnation of the legendary Bronx baseball stadium, which opened last year and saw the New York Yankees win its 27th World Series title last November.
It will be the first title fight since Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton met for the third time at the older venue across the street in 1976.
Yet, as an orthodox Jew, Foreman (28-0, 8 KOs), is obliged to wait until the end of the Sabbath at sunset around 9:15pm tonight before he is able to travel from his hotel to the stadium, meaning the fight will not get under way until at least 11:15pm local time, once the champion has had his hands wrapped and warmed up.
Belarus-born Foreman, who settled in Israel as a child before moving to Brooklyn to further his boxing career, is also three years into his studies to become a rabbi but he admits the biggest fight of his career has seen his religious education slow down.
“My studies have been a little bit on hold right now because this is a priority,” Foreman said.
“I’m about a year and a half away from ordination. It’s going well but there’s a lot of material to learn. One step at a time.”
Not that Foreman is forgetting the job at hand, denying Cotto a fourth world title at a third different weight following the Puerto Rican’s successes at light-welterweight and welterweight.
“I believe I’m ready. I’m going to focus on my gameplan,” Foreman said. “He didn’t fight anyone like me.
“Everybody in the ring has certain weaknesses. I will have to have antidotes to whatever Cotto brings and do my thing.”
Cotto has held a world title belt in each of the last six years since capturing the vacant WBO 140-pound title with a stoppage of Kelson Pinto in Puerto Rico. He then moved up a division to win the vacant WBA welterweight title with a TKO of Carlos Quintana in 2006.
Cotto made four successful defences, three of them in New York, until he suffered his first professional loss, a brutal defeat to the now disgraced Antonio Margarito in Las Vegas in 2008, but he won the vacant WBO welterweight title in his next fight, knocking out Bolton’s Michael Jennings back at Madison Square Garden in the fifth round of their February 2009 clash.
Then, last November, came another devastating loss, to Manny Pacquiao, raising questions about whether Cotto is too damaged at 29 to remain a serious contender.
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