Former junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman will need surgery on his right knee after tearing his meniscus and stretching ligaments Saturday night at Yankee Stadium.
Foreman was hurt in the seventh round of his fight against Miguel Cotto, which he eventually lost when referee Arthur Mercante Jr. waved it off early in the ninth round.
Foreman visited Dr. Gerard Varlotta, a joint specialist at The Rusk Institute in New York, and was told Monday he would need surgery on the knee. Foreman wasn't sure when it will be scheduled or how long he might be out of the ring.
``I will need surgery and I don't know yet how big it is,'' Foreman told The Associated Press. ``I'm going to find out soon, probably in the next day or two.''
Foreman said Varlotta was ringside for the fight and saw the injury happen.
The aspiring rabbi hurt himself when he slipped to the canvas in the seventh round on a steamy night in the Bronx. Foreman elected to continue fighting, even though he could barely move around, and survived to the end of the round.
Early in the eighth, Foreman was trading blows with Cotto when his corner threw a white towel into the ring to stop the fight. Mercante angrily tossed the towel out, even though dozens of people were already flooding through the ropes, and asked Foreman whether he wanted to keep fighting. Foreman said yes, the ring was cleared and the bout resumed.
Foreman's biggest weapon is his speed and defense, and his movement was compromised by the balky right knee. Cotto was able to stand in front of Foreman and finally landed a crushing body shot early in the ninth round that ended the fight.
Foreman said that besides the knee injury, he came out of the first main event at Yankee Stadium in more than three decades in good shape - a few bumps and bruises and some swelling from the barrage of blows landed by Cotto, now a three-division world champion.
``Yeah,'' Foreman said, ``I feel OK.''
