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Daniel Santos (32-3-1, 1 NC, 23 KO's, 154 pounds) (c) vs. Yuri Foreman (27-0, 1 ND, 8 KO's, 154 pounds)

 

 

Santos won this title in his last match from Joachim Alcine via knockout at 2:06 of round 6 on July 11, 2008 at Uniprix Stadium in Montreal, Quebec. This was an amazing win by Santos. That is because the referee for this match was the seemingly corrupt Montreal based official Marlon B. Wright. Wright has a history of literally refusing to count out local boxers. (The example can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/1/30/recap-of-lucian-bute-vs-librado-andrade.html) For Alcine to score such an irrefutable knockout that Wright was forced to call a knockout means that the left hook Santos landed to drop Alcine was truly devastating. Santos is making his first defense of this title.

 

Santos had an outstanding amateur boxing career that culminated when he took home the bronze medal for his native Puerto Rico in the 148 pound weight class at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympiad.

 

Santos' career has been marked by several long stretches of inactivity. This will be Santos' first match since winning the title 16 months ago. There are several reasons for Santos' recent inactivity. Santos was scheduled to defend his belt against Nobihido Ishida on January 3, but that match was canceled. After that, Santos refused a match with Sergio Martinez citing a lack of preparation time for a potential February 14 date on HBO to face Sergio Martinez in a 154-pound title unification match. (Instead, Martinez faced Kermit Cintron on that show and the match ended in a draw. It was probably the worst decision of 2009. A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/5/25/recap-of-sergio-martinez-vs-kermit-cintron.html) Santos' promoter, Don King, then tried to put together a match between Santos and Ricardo Mayorga. That match never got out of the early negotiation stages, because King made Mayorga. (The offer must have been pretty ridiculous, because Mayorga has decided to go into MMA over accept the offer. As a point of reference, King negotiated a deal that earned a boxer he promoted, Devon Alexander, $35,000 for defeating Junior Witter to win a 140-pound title on Showtime on August 1 of this year. Mayorga was probably offered less then that.) With those 3 matches falling through, Santos chose to stay out of the ring until facing his mandatory contender. Of course, Santos waited as long as possible to take this match. The sides could not agree to a deal for the match, that sent it to a purse bid. Top Rank won that and put it on this PPV.

 

Santos is unranked by The Ring and boxrec.com due to his more then year of inactivity.

Foreman began boxing at 7-years old in the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union fell, like many Jewish families, his family immigrated to Israel. (By Israeli law they must accept all Jewish immigrant applications. Therefore, a huge number of Jews fled the Soviet Union to Israel.) Foreman is currently training to be a rabbi and it is impossible to separate his boxing career from his Jewish identity. Foreman became on of Israel's top amateur boxers, where he won 3 consecutive amateur national championships. However, at 18-years old, Foreman immigrated from Israel to the United States. (Had he remained in Israel he would have been drafted. All men and women are drafted into the Israeli army after they graduate high school and turn 18-years old. There are exceptions, but Foreman could not have received an exception and continued boxing.) Foreman took up residence in Brooklyn, New York, and there finished a strong amateur boxing career by winning the 2001 New York Golden Gloves Championship.

 

Foreman's last high profile match was a 10-round unanimous decision victory over James Moore to retain a regional 154-pound belt on December 13, 2008 at Boardwalk Hall. Foreman was in complete control the entire match, but the performance was still underwhelming. It began in impressive fashion with Foreman landing hard punches that were making such a loud thudding sound against Moore's face they were drowning out the commentators. It was clear that Foreman had too much speed and power for Moore. During a clinch in round 5, Foreman found the time to wink at the Showtime broadcasters calling the event, because he was having such an easy time in the ring. In round 8, Moore spit out his mouthpiece to buy time to avoid a knockdown. In round 9, Moore was cut over his left eye by a punch. Foreman ended up taking the decision winning every round on 1 of the judges scorecards, but the troubling thing is that he never went after a knockout. That has been the story of Foreman's career. he says it is not right for a perspective rabbi to be attempting to hurt people. (If he thinks the Jewish religion has any problem with its religious leaders hurting people he is an unbelievably poor biblical scholar and must have confused Judaism with that other religion started in Israel. It also begs the question of why he would be a boxer in the first place, then?) Foreman has good punching power, but his last knockout came at 2:49 of round 1 on February 4, 2006 against Jimmy LeBlanc at The Castle in Boston, Massachusetts. Base on Foreman's record, it appears that was an accident. Since then, Foreman has gone to 7, 10-round decisions. In 4 of those, he won all 10 rounds on at least 1 of the official judges' scorecards. To be that dominant and not knockout any opponents is nearly impossible. In Foreman's 3 matches prior to knocking out LeBlanc he won every round on the scorecard and came away without a knockout. Foreman has 3 more matches on his record, where he won every round on the judges' scorecards and did not win via stoppage. The boxer is clearly putting in a concerted effort to not be interesting in the ring. A full recap of Foreman vs. Moore can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/11/11/recap-of-yuri-foreman-vs-james-moore.html

 

Foreman's last match was a no decision at 3:00 of round 3 against Cornelius Bundrage on June 27, 2009 at Boardwalk Hall. Foreman was ahead on all of the scorecards when it was ruled he could not continue due to a cut cause by an unintentional clash of heads. However under the unified rules of boxing a match has to go 4 rounds to go to the scorecards when it is stopped due to an injury caused by an unintentional foul, hence the no decision.

 

Foreman is The Ring's number 10 contender to their vacant championship at 154 pounds.

 

At 29-years old, Foreman is 5 years younger then the 34-year-old Santos. Santos will box out of the southpaw stance, and Foreman will box out of the orthodox stance. (What else would an aspiring rabbi use?)

 

The judges keeping official score of this match from ringside are Robert Hoyle, Jerry Roth and Clark Sammartino. The referee is Jay Nady.

The official outcome is that the official judges have scored this match: 117-109, 117-109, 116-110, all for the winner by unanimous decision, still undefeated, and the new WBA Super Welterweight Champion of the World, Yuri Foreman. The win moves Foreman to 28-0 with 1 no decision and 8 wins coming by way of knockout.

It appears Foreman's next match will be a title defense on PPV against Miguel Cotto on June 12  at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. That is the eve of New York City's Puerto Rican Day Parade, a night where Cotto traditionally draws gigantic crowds to see him main event at the Garden.

We hope to have the research and results for the Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. vs. Troy Rowlands match that was part of this card posted soon.