"I think Foreman outboxes him. Yuri is a natural 154-pounder and Miguel Cotto is not. People forget, he wasn't a big welterweight. This is a guy that has spent most of his career at 140. I think 28 of his bouts were at 140 pounds, where I think he was at his best. He moved up to 147 and he fought other guys who weren't big 147-pounders until he fought Margarito, who was a big 47-pounder with the specter of loaded gloves. When you take a beatdown like that, you're never the same...When he fought Clottey, he didn't look good and then he got blown out by Manny Pacquiao, so what's left of his psyche? And what's left of his physical ability? We just don't know, but I don't think it's enough to go up to 154 and beat Yuri Foreman and I think Bob Arum knows that and I think that's why they made this match," stated world-class MMA/boxing trainer Ron Frazier as he broke down this weekend's clash between WBA jr. middleweight champion Yuri Foreman and challenger Miguel Cotto. Check it out!
PC: Who do you like in this weekend's fight between Miguel Cotto and Yuri Foreman?
RF: I think Foreman outboxes him. Yuri is a natural 154-pounder and Miguel Cotto is not. People forget, he wasn't a big welterweight. This is a guy that has spent most of his career at 140. I think 28 of his bouts were at 140 pounds, where I think he was at his best. He moved up to 147 and he fought other guys who weren't big 147-pounders until he fought Margarito, who was a big 47-pounder with the specter of loaded gloves. When you take a beatdown like that, you're never the same. That goes for any combatant sport. When you have a physical fight like the one he had with Margarito, you're just never the same. He lost a little bit of his career in that bout and that's unfortunate. When he fought Clottey, he didn't look good and then he got blown out by Manny Pacquiao, so what's left of his psyche? And what's left of his physical ability? We just don't know, but I don't think it's enough to go up to 154 and beat Yuri Foreman and I think Bob Arum knows that and I think that's why they made this match. It's a way to build Yuri Foreman and say, "Hey, he beat Cotto." And obviously, if you don't have a Manny Pacquiao fight with Mayweather, you can angle where you have Manny Pacquiao taking on Yuri Foreman because he's not the biggest puncher in the world. It's not as dangerous.
PC: Cotto may never be the same, but from a marketability standpoint, do you think it's a little early to give up on Cotto?
RF: He's talking about retirement and, again, once you have one foot out of the door, it's hard to get that fire that you need to be successful at a very high level. And obviously with the physical fights that he had with Manny Pacquiao and Margarito, you don't know what's left in the gas tank anyway. I always say it, but once you get your trigger pulled...people that don't fight don't understand this, but it's easier to have it pulled again, so once he got beat by Margarito, it was easier to be beat by Pacquiao and Pacquiao dominated him. He beat him badly. Foreman doesn't have much pop, but let's say he was going up to fight Sergio Martinez at 154; would anybody expect him to win that fight? So who is he gonna beat if he's moving up to 154? He can't make 147, he's really not big enough to be in the 154-pound division, so where do you go with him? How do you market him? And because he's been destroyed twice, are people going to buy it? Obviously they are doing a good job with the Puerto Rican Day Parade and all of his countrymen are going to come out and support him, but if he keeps losing, they're not going to keep supporting him either. And Cotto is a guy that didn't have the greatest chin anyway.
PC: Antonio Margarito fought one week after Shane Mosley fought Floyd Mayweather. Of course the Mosley fight is where he was caught with the loaded wraps. Do you think that was too soon to bring him back?
RF: We saw what happened with Billy Collins and Luis Resto. Resto was suspended from boxing for life. I don't think he deserves it, but obviously, from the way Top Rank is promoting him, he is going to make some big paydays and I don't think he deserves them. I wouldn't be hurt if I never seen him fight again.
PC: We don't know much on the Mayweather/Pacquiao negotiations, but there is some talk of Mayweather fighting Martinez at 154 or possibly 160. What are your thoughts on that?
RF: I think that is an interesting fight. Martinez is the bigger guy. I think that's a guy Floyd can beat at that weight, especially 154. Even if he did fight him at 160, Floyd would probably come in at 155 or so. It's a heck of a challenge and we'll just see how it all plays out. I hope the Pacquiao fight gets done, but money and ego is playing into this thing and you're always going to have problems when that's the case. Floyd wants it his way and Manny wants it his way. Not to mention, you have the Bob Arum factor and that is a guy that doesn't care for Floyd and Floyd can't stand him. They hate each other, so Floyd's not running to put money in his pockets. I mean, Floyd bought himself out of a contract to not be promoted by Arum. I know Floyd likes to purchase things for himself, but he doesn't like to buy himself out of things, so that shows you how badly he wanted out. I remember being at the post-fight press conference for the first Castillo fight and Bob Arum was upset that Castillo didn't get the decision. He was talking about investigating and you would have thought someone stole something from him. I remember looking at my friend saying, "Doesn't Bob Arum promote both guys?" You would have never known that by the way he reacted. I want to see this thing happen, but don't force things on me. Like I could never see Clottey fight again and be okay with that. He is not a pay-per-view guy. Give me some young guys that are hungry. That's one of the problems with boxing. They may have 2 undefeated fighters, but as soon as you put him in there with somebody that can fight, 9 times out of 10, they got exposed.
PC: Its great catching up with you. Thanks for your time. Give me some closing thoughts?
RF: I just hope everyone stays safe. You can probably hear my beautiful daughter Samara in the background. I'm just enjoying life with her and she's getting bigger every day.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]