By Francisco Guzman
The old Yankee Stadium hosted 46 boxing matches and on Saturday, June 5th the new Yankee will keep that tradition alive by having its first boxing match since its opening up back in April 16, 2009. Billed as “Stadium Slugfest”, the WBA super welterweight championship title match up between Miguel Cotto vs Yuri Foreman is the first since Muhammad Ali vs Kenny Norton 3 decades ago, which was hosted in the old Yankee Stadium back in 1976. Former 2 time junior welterweight and welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (34-2,27 KO’s) from Caguas Puerto Rico is attempting to win a world title at a third weight class when he faces undefeated WBA super welterweight champion from Brooklyn, NY (28-0-8KO’s) Yuri Foreman. Cotto, who lost to Manny Pacquiao in November of 2009, will be trying to get back into the win column against Foreman. Sensing the seriousness of this fight with Yuri Foreman, Cotto retained the services of legendary trainer Emmanuel Steward to train him for his upcoming bout. I recently caught up with Emmanuel Steward and spoke with him about his work with Cotto and their relationship since becoming his trainer.
FG: Manny when you first started working with Miguel Cotto were there any concerns coming into his training camp knowing that sometimes a fighter can get into habits that can pose a problem?
ES: When I first entertained the thought of training Miguel Cotto, I had a lot of serious thoughts because I personally witnessed him being in 5 or 6 of the most brutal fights I have ever in boxing history. I don’t mean of modern time, of all time history. Naturally I am going to be concerned. The first day I trained him I was surprised and disappointed that his coordination and his balance was so bad but after about a week and I realized he loves to dance to his salsa music. I started working more with his music and that was the key. I got him moving and punching in combinations and keeping his wait evenly distributed. Moving in and out and cut down a few days of his training because he was over training and I attribute that to his performances in recent fights, in the second half of most of his fights he was weltering and I found out he was over training than under training. I bought in boxers who not so much physical punch boxers but kids who are very coordinated and move well on their feet much like Ray Leonard. I brought in undefeated fighter young man name Dominique Dolton and Dominique has been very much like a cat moving in and out. Miguel has picked up on his rhythm, the first few days he couldn’t handle Dominique and now their both 50/50 moving back and forth. Punching and moving forward and punching and moving back. So I am extremely happy with the way he’s looking. The only problem is that Yuri Foreman a difficult guy to fight. But I am very happy with his performance in training.
FG: Were you responsible for bringing in your own sparring partners to prepare Miguel Cotto for this fight with Yuri Forman?
ES: I brought the sparring partners in and also I brought in 2 of my of top amateur boxers of Kronk, Jacob and Joseph Bonas. Both are 16 yr old national amateur but I want him to be in with fast young fighters not slow fighter because Yuri Foreman fight to some degree like a very fast amateur fighter a lot of international type rhythm. So we brought in sparring partners who are very fast move and change directions who is very energetic and didn’t have the mid set of a sparring partner. So far he had picked up the same rhythm of the young fighters and looks extremely well.
FG: How long did it take before you saw a change in Miguel Cotto and started to feel more spirited about the fight?
ES: I saw a change in Miguel Cotto about the 8th day. He would get in the ring and start dancing by himself like a little kid. I could see then that he was happy and I could see a whole different aura in his performance.
FG: I heard you say that you were a fan of Miguel Cotto before you began training him. What kind of relationship have you gained and how are things you between guys?
ES: I was always a fan of Miguel Cotto’s because I’ve always been able to see uncomplaining proud warrior. He’s never complained about anything and in tough fights that he’s been in he never offered an excuse. Even when the Margarito situation comes up with the gloves he could have easily said he probably had something in it. My fault we didn’t check the hand wraps. I have no complaints about it. I’ve always respected him for that and since working with him I understand him more. He is a very family oriented not just mother and father but that close knit group of his the trainer, conditioning trainer they all stay in the house, cook and do everything together. When it was suggested that I come in to work with him which was really for the Pacquiao fight. I understand why he chose to stay with his friend who has been with him all along and really like part of his family Joe Santiago. When I come in maybe what to expect there is a lot of apprehension, this guy is not part of our family we’ve been so close knit. Being an American probable too and then he is a legendary trainer he going to probably come in and change things it’s my way or non way. When I came in they were kind of awkward at first you could see and then they felt more comfortable because I didn’t come in to change things I worked with in his program. We made some changes you can’t make drastic changes because he had to be something right to have won all of these fights he was a great amateur fighter. So I said I am not going to try to change everything. I would make some changes and that was to get his balance back to make him start moving more using his left jab more and basically just cut back on some of the excessive conditioning he was doing. I worked within his program that he had. We are very comfortable with each other talk about a lot of things sometimes beyond boxing. He’s a kind quiet type person anyway.
FG: Once you got on board what were some of things you worked on to get Miguel prepared for his fight Yuri Foreman?
ES: The most basic thing I worked on was balance. What ever you do you have to maintain balance. Any boxer that I trained, they going to have balance and a jab. When I trained Aaron Pryor for the rematch with Alexis Arguello, 5’6” against Arguello I had him use his jab. So the second fight he didn’t get hit so much. You must have a jab and you must have balance. I worked on his balance his jab and being able to put combinations together and to move forward and backwards and that is really the key.
FG: On June 5th what do you thinks we are going to see from Miguel Cotto?
ES: On June 5th you are going to see a much more spirited balance out fighter and maybe a faster combination puncher. Still it’s going to be an extremely tough fight because Yuri Foreman is very under appreciated, very, very talented fighter and has not been given the proper respect. I think you will see Foreman coming in with a lot of built up emotions to gain respect from the fight world. Even though close to the Puerto Rican Day, it’s very much built around him. It’s very much a Jewish type of situation, so he is coming in with a lot of energy spiritually mentally and physically. I think that Miguel is very energized because of the new techniques. The fact that he’s like fighting on now to regain the respect and admiration of not just the Puerto Rican community, but also the boxing world. It’s going to be a very exciting fight.