Miguel Cotto will challenge Yuri Foreman for a light middleweight title on June 5 at Yankee Stadium in New York. Bob Arum, the promoter for both fighters, broke the news earlier this evening.

“This is a crowning achievement in my career, to do the last fight in ’76 and the first fight at the new stadium in 2010,” said Arum. “You can’t imagine how good it makes me feel, how special it makes me feel. This is a great thing for my legacy.”

Good to see that Bob is making this fight about the fighters. Boxing promoters are first and foremost self-promoters.

The ring will be located in right-center field and seats will be available on the field, in the right field bleachers and along the first base line. Tickets will be priced between $50 and $400 and the stadium will be configured to hold up to 35,000 fans.

If you look around cyberspace these days, there has been a subtle shift in the public wind as it pertains to Antonio Margarito and his indefinite suspension from boxing. Margarito’s attempted use of illegal hand wraps for his January, 2009 contest with Shane Mosley seems a distant memory to some and, shockingly, a flat-out falsehood to more than a few.

A year ago, there was outrage and indignation in the public discourse. Now, articles are popping up in support of the return of Margarito’s license and all sorts of conspiracy theories are springing up that would have one re-think their stance on “The Tijuana Tornado.”

But, before we forgive and forget, let’s take a look at the night Antonio Margarito wanted on January 24th, 2009.

…read full article…

Light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman is close to finalizing a title defense against Miguel Cotto in New York. Most assumed that Madison Square Garden would host the fight, but Yankee Stadium has emerged as a realistic venue for the title fight.

Yankee officials have cleared the newly built stadium for the June 5 date proposed for the fight and plan to meet with Top Rank officials to iron out the details.

Yankee Stadium has hosted some of boxing’s biggest fights. The last fight to be in Yankee Stadium, however, was Muhammad Ali vs. Ken Norton in 1976. If Bob Arum can’t bring a fight back to Yankee Stadium for the first time in 34 years, Madison Square Garden will be the site. If the fight ends up at MSG, June 12 is the likely date.

Shane Mosley is once again without an opponent. After spending most of 2009 trying to lure Floyd Mayweather Jr or Manny Pacquiao into a superfight, Shane Mosley settled for Andre Berto in a bout that was scheduled for January 30. Andre Berto decided to drop out of the fight due to the earthquakes that devastated Haiti, as Berto lost family members in the disaster.

Shane Mosley once again finds himself without an opponent. Read on to see which three fighters Mosley should take aim at next.

When separating the best from the rest, especially in boxing, every detail of a fighter’s career matters. More important than the number of wins he chalked up or the number of titles he captured are questions like who he fought and how he performed against his best opponents. Did he ever look vulnerable and how did he respond to adversity?

And when looking at the best of a decade, longevity comes into the discussion. Was the fighter able to maintain a championship pace for nearly all 10 years or just five? Battling the inevitability of getting older, did he somehow manage to improve as a fighter? Did he extend his career beyond the average expiration date or did he never recover from a particular defeat?

Whittling down the details takes time, but this system seemed a fair and accurate way to go about determining just who were the best fighters from this decade:

Setting the time parameters from 2000 to 2009 and looking at each man’s biggest fights, who was the best in the sport the longest?

With that out of the way, it’s time to unveil…

The 10 Best Boxers of the Decade

…read full article…

Today is Thanksgiving and some of the Inside Fights staffers wanted to give thanks for the things they are most thankful for in boxing. It has been a good year for the sweet science with many things to be thankful for. Read on for a moment of thanks from the staff. Share your own moments of thanks in the comments section.

…read full article…

Last Saturday’s fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto recorded 1.25 million pay-per-view buys. The TV gross was $70 million. The live gate was $8.84 million with 15,470 tickets sold. In comparison, Floyd Mayweather Jr and Juan Manuel Marquez reached 1.05 million buys in September.

Bob Arum, promoter of both Pacquiao and Cotto, estimates that Manny Pacquiao made $22 million off of the fight while Cotto pulled in $12 million. Not too shabby.

Bob Arum also wants to begin negotiations on a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr, most likely with an early May 2010 date. This fight is just too big to ignore now. I’d be surprised if it doesn’t get made.

He puts on the kind of exciting performances that make people take note and he certainly has the public support and positive publicity to become an even bigger star, but as Manny Pacquiao achieves yet another milestone with his blow-out against Miguel Cotto this past Saturday, the call to place him among boxing’s all-time greats is louder than ever.

Now that the standing ovation has settled down, we can take a closer look at where Manny stands in history by looking at how his career holds up amongst his peers.

…read full article…

The Inside Fights boxing staff goes live at 9pm ET tonight with its biggest show since last week’s offering. It’s going to be that big. The guys will delve into last Saturday’s fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. The guys also plan on making a huge announcement during the show. You can listen to the live show here and use the player below for archived shows. Send and comments or questions to round13radio@yahoo.com. We’ll read anything we get before the show goes live.

By now it has sunk in.

Manny Pacquiao is the greatest boxer on the planet not named Floyd Mayweather Jr. He also might be the worst singer ever to put out an album and sing in a band. Here are ten other thoughts to ponder after Pacquiao’s dismantling of Miguel Cotto.

1. Pacquiao can take a welterweight’s punch.

For me, this was the most important question coming in. How would Pacquiao react when Cotto hit him with clean shots to the head and body? Well Pacquiao laid those questions to rest in the first round when by his own admission, he set out to “feel Cotto’s power”.

Come to find out, he wasn’t all that impressed with Cotto’s power, and preceded to thump him for it. In a potential upcoming fight with Mayweather, whether or not Pacquiao can take a welterweight punch is not a question anymore.

…read full article…