(Photos) HBO Boxing: Miguel Cotto stops injured Foreman in 9th round

Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto looked to bounce back
from his November loss to pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2)
against WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman.

Cotto's trademark left jabs and hooks once again deployed with precision against
his ring opponent, earning Cotto a ninth round stoppage.

PHOTOS: Cotto stops Foreman

PHOTOS:  Scenes at Yankee Stadium

The Caguas-native earned a belt in another weight class and is
now the new WBA junior middleweight champion.

The Jewish Foreman
was born in East Russia and moved to Brooklyn, New York

Cotto
improved to 35 wins and 2 losses, and Foreman suffered his first loss

and dropped to 28 wins, 1 loss.

WBO welterweight champion Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao
(51-3-2), wearing a dark pink shirt and black vest, sat at ringside
along with wife Jinkee and Top Rank Promoter Bob Arum, a day after
collecting Fighter of the Year and Fighter of the Decade honors from the
Boxing Writers Association of America.

Foreman weighed in for
the fight at the junior middleweight limit of 154 lbs while Cotto
weighed in at his heaviest at 153.5 lbs.

The Puerto Rican won the
early part of the fight by throwing periodic, accurate jabs at a steady
pace.  Trainer Emmanuel Steward clearly instilled discipline in Cotto's
gameplan as the latter often refused to go after Foreman when the
latter was staggered, preferring to throw low-risk jabs at opportune
times.  In other words, Cotto refused to get reckless and stayed

methodical.

The taller Foreman was forced to pedal backwards
for chunks of the first three rounds, oftening attempting to counter
Cotto.

Foreman possessed a slightly shorter reach than his
opponent and often landed right jabs and hooks into Cotto, but not
enough.

HBO's unofficial scorer Harold Lederman scored the
first three rounds for Cotto.

Foreman, acting with urgency in the
fourth round, connected on several jabs including straight rights into
Cotto's vulnerable left side.

Towards the middle stages of the
bout, Yuri's face became increasingly and noticeably red.

Foreman, began circling to his left, away from
Cotto's powerful left hand but the Puerto Rican expects this movement
from his opponents.

Blood began to streak down Foreman's nose,
encouraging Cotto - and the crowd.  The Jewish boxer and rabbi-aspirant
began to go on the retreat again, needing precious seconds to recover
after one of Cotto's landed blows.  Cotto appeared to need much less
recovery time after Foreman landed his blows, revealing the quality of
Cotto's opposition in the past, which includes Pacquiao, Shane Mosley,
Antonio Margarito, and Paulie Malignaggi.

Foreman slipped
down into the canvas twice in the eighth round after having
problems with his right knee, which was supported by a leg brace. 
Foreman got back up with the referee giving a few seconds of recovery
time, but the brave Foreman was clearly bothered by the injury.  His
right knee simply gave way thereafter, making him unable to effectively
move away from Cotto.

Cotto took advantage with several hard
combinations.  In the eighth round, Foreman's knee locked again, and
within a few seconds it appeared that his corner threw in the towel. 
Foreman's wife looked distraught at ringside.

The courageous
Foreman could only look around in disgust as he wanted to continue to
fight.  The referee cleared the ring, which took a few minutes, and the
bout continued - to Cotto's surprise.

The crowd
erupted. The fight came alive.  Foreman, bleeding in the nose,
took it to Cotto, releasing several combinations.  The latter responded
with harder blows of his own.  The champ finished the round.  Yankee
Stadium came alive.

Cotto finally ended the bout in the ninth with an
explosive left hook to the body at the end of the round.  The injured
foreman fell towards the ropes and the ref immediately halted the
mismatched bout.

This time, the referee conclusively ended it.

Final punch statistics saw Cotto landed 115 punches to Foreman's 71,
according to CompuBox.

Cotto landed 39 jabs to Foreman's 21.

In an interview with HBO's Max Kellerman, the commentator
asked the Puerto Rican what he wanted next, to which he replied that he
simply wanted to take a break and rest.  Cotto did disclose his
intentions of continuing to pursue the biggest fights in boxing.

Foreman
said after the fight that his right knee caused him a lot of pain. 
Still he chose to continue to fight against a game Cotto and did not use
the injury as an excuse for the stoppage.  Towards the end of the
fight, many in the crowd were chanting "Foreman, Foreman, Foreman!"

Jim
Lampley, Kellerman, and Roy Jones, Jr rounded out the HBO
ringside commentator team.

Jones, the former pound-for-pound king replaced regular Emmanuel
Steward who served as Cotto's head trainer.

It will be interesting
who Miguel Cotto fights next.  Arum has suggested that a Pacquiao
rematch is possible.  Additionally, Antonio Margarito, Paul Williams,
Anndre Berto, Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather, Jr, Joshua Clottey, and
Kermit Cintron, and Sergio Martinez are looking for their next
opponents.