NEW YORK — Miguel Cotto has sold more tickets to boxing events in New York City over the past decade than anyone. The Puerto Rican star has won titles in two weight divisions, and long ago stamped himself as one of the most exciting fighters of his generation.
Yet all that success didn't mean much when he hooked up with Manny Steward a couple of months ago. In fact, the Hall of Fame trainer barely knew where to start.
"The first two days it was difficult to work with him because his balance was so bad," Steward said Thursday. "His head was down and he was throwing only single punches."
Cotto knew that wouldn't get the job done when he steps up a division to challenge WBA junior middleweight champ Yuri Foreman on June 5 at the new Yankee Stadium. That's why he hired Steward, who has trained some of the best in boxing history, among them Thomas Hearns, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and current heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.
"My balance was awful before this camp, and it's much better," Cotto said. "We can throw punches and stay on balance. That's one of the things we've worked on in this camp."
It hasn't been a complete rebuilding job, far from it.
Cotto still punches with incredible power, and his sharp boxing skills have outdone some of the best welterweights in the world, from Shane Mosley to Zab Judah. But his team has been in a seemingly constant state of flux over the past year, ever since a high-profile falling out with his uncle and longtime trainer Evangelista Cotto.
Joe Santiago eventually took over and helped Cotto to a victory over Joshua Clottey, but he absorbed tremendous punishment in the fight. And when Cotto was stopped by Manny Pacquiao last November, many blamed Santiago's inexperience for not preparing him well and not stopping the fight early enough, when Cotto was getting bludgeoned by the pound-for-pound king.
So into the fold stepped Steward, who said during a conference call from the Fight Factory Gym in Tampa, Fla., that he was honored to join the team.
"Everything has gone way, way, way better than I expected," Steward said. "It's a phenomenal experience for me, at this stage of my life, to work with a great fighter like Miguel, who I've always been a fan of from Day 1. He's fought the who's who that would fight him."
Steward not only helped Cotto find his balance inside the ring, but he's helped him to establish some balance outside of it.
The trainer wisely invited Santiago to work as his assistant, rather than alienating one of the key members of a tightly knit team, and helped calm a training camp that has also missed the presence of Cotto's father, Miguel Sr., whose death in January hit the fighter especially hard.
"I would agree with Emanuel, we're working pretty hard in training camp, and everything is going more than good, more than we expected, and we're just waiting until the night of the fight to prove to everybody what we were doing," Cotto said. "I know the fans are going to love it."
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum expects around 30,000 to be on hand for the first fight at Yankee Stadium since Muhammad Ali fought Ken Norton at the old ballpark in 1976. Ticket sales have been strong and the publicity has been enormous.
There are posters in dozens of subway stops in New York, and a billboard promoting the fight in Times Square. Hundreds of stories have been penned about the place that boxing has in the history of Yankee Stadium, and about the unique nature of Cotto's opponent — Foreman is an aspiring rabbi who came to the United States with little more than the clothes on his back.
"It is unquestionable that Miguel Cotto is the most popular fighter in New York, he's demonstrated that year after year," Arum said. "Everybody is talking about his fight."
Meanwhile, Cotto has been able to quietly toil in the shadows while the ballpark and Foreman stand in the spotlight, working with Steward to refine his game.
"I don't know what will happen the night of the fight," Cotto said, "but I know for sure, when the fight is over, I'm going to be the winner."