NEW YORK — Miguel Cotto shone brightly once again, this time under the twinkling lights of Yankee Stadium.
The pride of Puerto Rico stopped a game Yuri Foreman in the ninth round Saturday night to win the junior middleweight title, delighting thousands of his flag-waving fans in the first fight at the Bronx ballpark in more than three decades.
It didn’t come without a bit of controversy, or at least an interesting footnote.
Foreman slipped in the seventh round and badly twisted his right knee, then slipped to the mat again later in the round.
He survived to the end but could hardly move around the ring, getting tagged at will by Cotto and limping on a knee that was already covered by a black brace.
Between rounds, Foreman’s wife leaned over the railing and implored his trainer to stop the fight. Someone in Foreman’s corner obliged and threw in the towel early in the seventh round, but referee Arthur Mercante Jr. angrily tossed the towel right back out.
He asked Foreman if he wanted to continue, and the aspiring rabbi with the compelling life story elected to fight on.
The ring had filled with people and was cleared before the fight continued.
Foreman (28-1) was able to move better in the eighth round and survived to the ninth, when Cotto caught him near the ropes and dropped him to the canvas once more.
This time, Mercante stepped in and called off the fight at 42 seconds of the round.
Cotto (35-2, 28 KOs) set the tempo with his left jab from the moment he stepped in the ring, showing that he’s perfectly comfortable at 154 pounds.
