By Tim Britton, MLB.comNEW YORK -- Yankee Stadium's upper deck will be the place to see uppercuts one day this summer.
On June 5, Miguel Cotto will challenge Yuri Foreman for the World Boxing Association's Super Welterweight Championship in the first fight to be held at a Yankees' home ballpark since Ken Norton battled Muhammad Ali in 1976. It will be a first for the new stadium, which opened last year.
The ring will be set up in right-center field on the playing surface, with a canopy overhead and seating both in the stands and on the field. The headline match between Cotto and Foreman will start at 11:30 p.m. and can be seen live on HBO. Tickets will go on sale on April 16. "Yankee Stadium ...the name itself just brings up memories of fabulous sports nights," said Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank, the promotions company that helped bring the fight together. "How could anybody who has any kind of feeling for momentous events not be here on Saturday, June 5?"
Foreman, a native of Belarus and current resident of Brooklyn, is the reigning super welterweight champ, earning that title in November by defeating Daniel Santos. He will enter the fight with a 28-0 mark. Instead of relaxing after earning his title belt, Foreman wanted to challenge himself by taking on another former world champion in Cotto, who will move up a weight class for the bout.
Cotto, who was raised in Puerto Rico but has spent several years in the Bronx, is one of the biggest names in boxing and looking to rebound after a loss to Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas in November. That was just Cotto's second loss in 36 career fights.
Arum and Top Rank have worked to stage boxing events in some of the country's biggest and newest venues. Just last month, Pacquiao battled Joshua Clottey in the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington in front of more than 50,000 fans.
"It enables us to put the sport of boxing at a new level and on a new platform where it can be seen by so many people on a big stage," said Arum, who added that the set-up at Yankee Stadium will allow for variable ticket prices and greater availability. "We can confidently expect to have 30,000 people here."
The fighters themselves are excited for the chance not only to challenge each other, but to do so in one of the most hallowed venues in American sports.
"Fighting here, at the home of the greatest baseball team in America, is more than an honor for me," said Cotto, excited by the possibility of an even larger crowd here than for his fights at Madison Square Garden.
"I never imagined anything like this," Foreman said as he took in the Stadium from the third-base line. "I'm living the American Dream."
This first fight at Yankee Stadium -- already dubbed "Stadium Slugfest" on the promotional material -- will rejuvenate a tradition of major boxing events in the Bronx. The old Yankee Stadium across 161st Street hosted 30 championship fights that included the likes of Gene Tunney, James Braddock, and Sugar Ray Robinson. It was home to the famous bout between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling in 1938 and the first televised boxing match in 1939 between Max Baer and Lou Nova.
The Yankees grounds crew will have plenty of time to get the field back into playing shape after the fight. The Bronx Bombers begin a road trip the day before the bout and don't return home until six days after it for Interleague Play and a series with the Astros.
Tim Britton is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Source: mlb.mlb.com
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