Mercante was 1st man in ring at Yankee Stadium, not 3rd

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Boxing returned to Yankee Stadium for the first time since Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton engaged in a much-debated bout 34 years ago, and befitting the sport, a bizarre night was in store for over 20,000 fans.

Miguel Cotto was leading in the 154-pound bout when the right leg of titleholder (and rabbinical student) Yuri Foreman started to give way on him. Foreman fell to the canvas on two occasions and when upright fought in a crouch.

Without movement, the gutsy but light-hitting Foreman didn't have a chance. Cotto started to land headshots to a degree he hadn't earlier in the fight and the fight's ending seemed at hand.

But when a white towel came from Foreman's corner in the eighth, referee Arthur Mercante Jr. chose to overrule it, and ordered everyone out of the ring. The process took a few minutes, and when action resumed Cotto landed a bodyshot that crumpled Foreman in the ninth.

Mercante Jr. didn't bother to issue a count and stopped the fight.

The ref is within his rights to ignore a towel thrown into the ring, but usually when the cornerman enters the ring on behalf of his fighter it results in a disqualification. The corner knows their fighter and (presumably) cares about their well being.

Mercante's forceful actions were greeted with much approval by most boxing observers following on Twitter.

I didn't get it. The ref's job is to protect the fighter, not to impose his will or provide a more satisfactory outcome for the paying customers.

It's great that Foreman himself wanted to continue and put on a gutsy display, but all Mercante's much-ballyhooed intervention accomplished was to prolong the inevitable by three minutes. Foreman was trailing by anywhere from four to six points and doesn't have a big punch even when he can plant and pivot with two good legs, let alone one.

Mercante seemed jacked up from the outset, and that was partly understandable. It was a big event and also his first major assignment since his father, the legendary ref of the same name, passed away earlier this year.

But he seemed to want to inject himself into the proceedings. He invoked his dad's name before giving instructions to the fighters, and he repeatedly pointed to the sky as he waited for the opening bell.

When Foreman fell to the ground because of his leg, Mercante told him to "suck it up." Not his job to do that.

For all of his forcefulness at the end of the fight, he wasn't exactly aggressive when Foreman's mouthpiece twice came out earlier. Each time over a full minute went by before he stopped action. The ref is supposed to find a suitable break to replace the mouthpiece, and it wasn't like there was non-stop punching taking place.

I'm usually OK with Mercante as a ref, and it's not like I thought Foreman would get seriously hurt the extra time, but I just didn't think the peformance was deserving of heaps of praise either.

Newsday posited the theory that Mercante in effect saved what could have been an unruly crowd reaction had the main event ended in muted fashion via the corner stepping in.

Maybe, I wasn't there. But you can hardly give Mercante credit for that kind of foresight when he also said he couldn't assume where the towel was thrown from.

Who just happens to have a towel with them at a fight other than the cornermen?

As well, this couldn't have been the first fight in which most of the fans there had seen a towel thrown into the ring.

As for Cotto, it was a confidence-building effort after the beating he received from Manny Pacquiao, which came 18 months after the beating he received from Antonio Margarito. I didn't see anything appreciably different from Cotto, despite the raves of some that he looked improved under new trainer Emanuel Steward.

In fairness, they've been together for one fight, and Cotto's still a really good fighter. He just looks awfully slow to me now, a sitting duck for an opponent's punches, and he was actually physically moved on one occasion by a right hand from Foreman, a light puncher.

Cotto could put together a fruitful couple of years in the 154-pound division, which is in a bit of a flux. The likes of Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez have bounced from that weight to 160, Margarito just came back after a one-year suspension due to the glove-tampering scandal, Vernon Forrest died, and James Kirkland went to prison. Guys like Alfred Angulo and Erislandy Lara are still a little green.

Where to next for Cotto? While Kermit Cintron is also Puerto Rican and a maddeningly inconsistent fighter, he's also much bigger physically than Cotto and has a good right hand. I wouldn't put Cotto anywhere near him just yet if I were guiding him. Another Puerto Rican might be a more appropriate step: Luis Collazo, who always seems to do enough to lose closely to the best fighters, but can punch a little bit harder than Foreman.

Bitter Ross loss

Canadian Troy Ross should give Glen Johnson a call.

Ross, nearly 35, saw his first title shot end in disheartening fashion. The Brampton, Ont., cruiserweight knocked down Steve Cunningham in a battle for a vacant title bout in Germany, but suffered a bad cut from a thumb just seconds later.

Had the fight taken place in the U.S., it would have gone to the scorecards due to an unintentional thumb. But referee Bill Clancy ruled it a punch, completely ignoring the fact that Ross immediately recoiled as soon as the cut occurred as if thumbed.

That made Cunningham a TKO winner. Cunningham is a good guy but he celebrated just a little too enthusiastically for a guy who'd just been on his butt two minutes earlier. I understand he was happy to regain a belt, but you'd have thought he had been dominating the bout.

Cunningham was signed in recent months by Sauerland Promotions of Germany, which also represents some cruiserweight contenders from that country.

There's no doubt Cunningham will be matched with some of them, so he'd be wise to not to assume the officials are going to be on his side next time around.

Johnson was an oft-avoided guy who persevered and bounced back after some tough breaks on the road to flourish in his late 30s. Provided the cut isn't career threatening, hopefully Ross can do the same.

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