Report: Foreman-Cotto fight set at Stadium

Calling it the "crowning achievement in my career," boxing promoter Bob Arum told The Associated Press last night that a deal for WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman to defend his title June 5 at Yankee Stadium at last has been finalized.

Arum was the promoter for the last boxing event held at the old Yankee Stadium, a heavyweight title bout between Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton on Sept. 28, 1976. Yankees management approached Arum last month about promoting the first boxing event at the new Yankee Stadium, and he responded with a match between two fighters with an ethnic fan base in New York.

Foreman (28-0) lives in Brooklyn, where he is studying to be a rabbi, and former welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (34-2), a Puerto Rican, has been a popular local attraction in six previous fights at Madison Square Garden.

"This is a crowning achievement in my career, to do the last fight in '76 and the first fight at the new stadium in 2010," Arum told the AP by phone from Los Angeles. "You can't imagine how good it makes me feel, how special it makes me feel. This is a great thing for my legacy."

A ring will be erected in right-centerfield with ringside seating on the field. There also will be seats in the rightfield bleachers and along the first-base line, and the stadium will be configured to hold between 30,000 and 35,000 fans.

Ringside tickets begin at $400 and go down to $50 for the least expensive seats.

Said Arum, "We have to make the fight very, very affordable."