Cotto beats Foreman, Nathanielsz and Castillejo didn’t know what hit them
Miguel Cotto (35-2-0, 28 KOs) needed a win and he got it, albeit not as impressive as what he may have preferred. Cotto won via ninth round TKO over Yuri Foreman (28-1-0, 8 KOs).
Foreman showed tremendous heart. He clearly was injured after the first fall but he didn’t even think about quitting. He even pressed forward and gamely exchanged leather with Cotto. The slip spelled doom for Foreman who was fighting beautifully against Cotto by constant movement and clear and crisp punching. When he hurt his knee, he could no longer do what he was doing so well.
Cotto was leading in the scorecards but if you watched it on Philippine TV, you wouldn’t know as the commentators were heavily favoring for Foreman. I think Ronnie Nathanielsz even said Foreman won most initial six rounds.
Foreman slipped from his wet corner in the seventh round and he appeared to injured his already heavily braced knee. He fell down again after a minute, this time in Cotto’s wet corner, which aggravated the injury. Foreman’s corner threw in the towel to the dismay of their fighter. The ring filled up with people but referee Arthur Mercante was having none of it.
This is where the broadcast went awry for me. Nathanielsz and his broadcast partner Dyan Castillejo couldn’t explain why Mercante cleared the ring allowed the fight to continue. Nathanielsz said that “the wrong person threw in the towel” then Castillejo said that Emmanuel Steward should have been the one who threw in the towel.
The problem with Castillejo’s statement is that STEWARD IS ON COTTO’S SIDE!
Then the two start making sense of Nathanielsz’ statement that the wrong guy threw in the towel. But they quickly learned that the person who threw in the towel was indeed foreman’s head trainer meaning he had all the right in the world to thrown in the towel. They ran out of theories so they just went back to calling the fight.
They seemed to have looked past one of the most obvious rules in boxing.
Only the referee can stop the fight.
The doctor has input, the corner definitely has input, but in the end, only the referee can stop the fight. Nathanielsz and Castillejo both didn’t notice that referee Mercante didn’t wave his arms above his head to signal the end of the fight.
I think Nathanielsz is okay as a boxing commentator. His knowledge is vast and even if he thought Foreman was leading that fight, it’s all fine with me. Different people see fights differently. I even understand why he wasn’t able to come up with the conclusion that only the referee can stop the fight. We’re all used to seeing fights end at the sight of the towel in the ring, maybe he was just caught up with the moment.
However, it’s hard to enjoy the fight when I keep hearing out of this world comments from one of the commentators. Read some of here cooments at Mark Lorenzana’s site. I think Castillejo is a fine sports/lifestyle reporter. I even enjoy her boxing reports sometimes even if she seems to be biased for certain fighters. But I honestly feel she should not be a boxing commentator. Her boxing knowledge is limited, her insights are obvious, and she notices the fighters’ appearance (shorts, height, muscles, hair) more than what they do in the ring.
I commend ABS-CBN Sports for airing all these great fights for free even if on a slightly delayed basis. However, they should stick to boxing commentators who know what they’re talking about. In all honesty, I’d rather watch the fight on mute rather than hearing Castillejo’s comments.
Anyway, going back to the fight, the two warriors both showed heart and sportsmanship. Foreman could have quit after the second slip while Cotto could have whined about the fight continuing even if Foreman’s corner threw in the towel. Cotto could also have punched Foreman while he was having trouble with his knee but if you watch the fight again, Cotto actually moved away from Foreman each time he had trouble with his footing.
I guess Cotto is now plan B should the Pacquiao-Mayweather negotiations fails again.
Underdog Boxing's Blog 
Nung una naiinis ako sa pag commentary ni dyan. Nung huli natatawa nalang ako kasi talagang she has no clue about boxing.
glad you saw humor amidst all of that. hahaha. i wish i could say the same thing. it was a pretty good fight but her comments really destroyed the experience for me. thanks for dropping by!
Congrats for providing yet another wonderful article Mr. Underdog! It feels great to be able to dropby your blogsite again. The comment that i’m about to leave might prove to be a lengthy one this time so please bear with me chief, hehe.
I was in a great mood to watch this very compelling fight. After Cotto’s devastating loss to the great Pacman his decision to get Steward and subsequent move northwards to face the newly crowned WBA champion Yuri Foreman, several questions come to mind. Does Cotto still have it? Will he be effective at the higher weight? What changes or improvements have Manny Steward incorporated to Cotto’s style? And while boxing pundits see Foreman as the weakest current division champ, will his run n’ gun style create problems leading to another cotto setback? I waited in anticipation for the local station to broadcast a slightly delayed telecast. I dared not to stay close to my pc for fear of being tempted to browse over the fight result. Nah, stayed in the living room instead.
Rounds 1 and 2 were clear cotto rounds. foreman was still trying to find his rhythm while cotto was already effectively using his jabs to keep yuri at bay. Round 3 was more competitive as foreman begins to pick up his game by unloading combos that were somehow either parried or blocked. his in and out style opens opportunities for both to exchange a few combos and slip counters of which cotto was able to capitalize by slippin two solid counter left hooks on separate instances.. Cotto edges this round. Foreman starts the fourth with a vicious right tagging cotto in the process and building enough momentum to dominate the round. Momentum shifts back to cotto on the fifth as he lands 4 huge counters(yes i actually counted it..), three solid left hooks and one uppercut, on separate instances, and one more huge right while continuing to jab quite effectively. Yuri continues to run and occassionally unloads flurries of which most are partially blocked. Cotto takes this round handily.. Round 6 is slightly more competitive but in no way foreman snatched it. Cotto was able to effectively cut corners forcing yuri to engage more but rarely lands a significant blow while miguel smothers yuri with counter left hooks and solid jabs. Quite surprisingly, Cotto matches foreman’s footwork thus negating foreman’s speed and lateral movement. It was clearly steward’s work. Cotto takes the sixth round as well..The fight was building up to be a great “boxing match” until the unfortunate incident in the seventh. Rounds 7, 8 and leading up to the stoppage in the 9th were clearly dominated by cotto no question.
Despite the accident and the unwanted pre-emptions that caused the slight confusion, the fight still proved to be a good one. For some, questions may have been answered but for me, i’ll reserve my opinions till after cotto’s next fight. 😉 But what made it more entertaining was the comical relief that our very own local commentators provided and the manner by which they have discredited cotto’s win over foreman was a cheapshot of epic proportions. Allow me to share to you a few of their highlights: In the earlier rounds, Nathanielz was hinting that rounds 3 and 4 may have been clinched by foreman on the account of his effective “boxing” and more aggressive approach. In short, he was crediting foreman for picking up his game in rounds 3 and 4, enough for him to take the said rounds. That was a pretty lame analysis don’t you think? And to make it even worse, Dyan was nuthugging Ronnie by agreeing to almost everything he says. Maybe that’s what viewers get for having a former tennis superstar as a boxing analyst. And if that’s not enough, Dyan goes on to suggest that manny steward may have been the one who threw the towel. say what??? And when the fight was finally stopped on the account of a cotto bodyshot, both ronnie and dyan expressed their heartfelt sympathies to foreman and praised him for being brave enough to continue with the fight. And best of all, ronnie repeatedly quipped that he gives little to no credit for the supposed cotto win. Goodness, why take it on Cotto? Cotto was going up in weight, coming off a terrible pac-beating and fought fairly. That alone should earn him tons of credit already.. And when Ronnie boldly claims that Foreman won the 1st 6 rounds(obviously out of sheer disgust of the outcome and probably to spite cotto who was nowhere near him to even hear it, lol), I said, that’s it! i’m switching channels…
Just a few hours back, I was able to get hold of an HBO version of the said fight and the fight turned out to be more revealing, watching it from a better and nearer angle. I hope ronnie and dyan gets hold of this version too so that they will realize how fool they have utterly made of theirselves trying to pretend to be all-knowing boxing analysts to the avid filipino boxing fans. Clueless and Classless!
Thanks for the opportunity of being able to share my views. More power to Underdog Boxing!!! Till the next comment… 🙂
dude! you write better than me!ahahaha. next time you come up with something as good as this comment, mail it to me. i’ll publish it as an article here!
i didn’t know why they were gobbling foreman’s balls. i seriously do not understand why ronnie said cotto should get no credit for that win. cotto hanging with a full-fledged light middleweight in itself is already commendable, specially because many people say that he’s already shot.
great insights as always totomabs. thanks for visiting my blog.
sure thing chief. As i have always admired your in-depth knowledge, superior writing skills and critical insights about boxing in general, i feel more comfortable sharing my views here than elsewhere. I sometimes find it impossible to post sensibly on esb because posters there will always find a way to discredit your views and twist the facts to suit ones agenda, nuthuggers and fanboys alike, haha.
i wish more and more esb tambays would visit your great blog and drop a comment or two. More power and continue writing! 🙂
salamat sa suporta sir. if you ever find time to write an article, mail me at clpamintuan@gmail.com. i’ll make sure it gets published.
sa inyo ko rin naman napulot ang karamihan ng alam ko sa boxing. malaki ang utang na loob ko sa mga tao sa tambayan natin sa esb.
Hahaha. Natawa ko dito pare: “Her boxing knowledge is limited, her insights are obvious, and she notices the fighters’ appearance (shorts, height, muscles, hair) more than what they do in the ring.”
So true. 🙂
thanks man. great work with the gorres articles at firequinito. hmmm. should i change my blog to firecastillejo?hahaha pwede!