Miguel Cotto said before Saturday night’s fight against WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman that he wanted to recapture the Cotto of the past. In the end, the Puerto Rican star reached back into his past and dusted off a an old potent weapon – a searing hook to the body – to capture his third divisional title via ninth round TKO.

Meanwhile, the speedy Foreman proved he had the heart of a real fighter by refusing to yield to an old knee injury when it would have been convenient to do so. Instead, he fought on for nearly two more rounds before Cotto’s hook forced him to succumb, however unwillingly. By obeying this time-honored code, Foreman covered himself with glory – a peculiar brand perhaps, but glory nevertheless.

The drama of Foreman’s injury and subsequent gutsy display overshadowed what was an excellent bounce-back performance by Cotto. He demonstrated better balance, a quick solid jab and a winner’s energy level against a man who many scribes thought had the style to not only trouble Cotto but to conquer him. He did not look like the spent force that bowed to Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao but that might be a mirage given Foreman’s lack of one-punch pop.

Still, Cotto dominated the final CompuBox stats as he landed 115 of 329 overall (35 percent) to Foreman’s 71 of 281 (25 percent). As expected, Cotto out-performed his rival in connected power shots 76-50 but the numbers offer a good news-bad news scenario for the Puerto Rican. The good: He landed 46 percent of his 164 attempts. The bad: Foreman landed 37 percent of his 136, continuing a trend in recent fights where opponents land a higher than usual percentage of their most meaningful blows. If Cotto is to succeed against the best at 154 he must tighten up that part of his defense.

One encouraging sign for Cotto was that he beat Foreman at his own game, for the shorter man landed 39 of 165 jabs (24 percent) while limiting Foreman to 21 of 145 (14 percent).

The conventional wisdom in boxer-puncher pairings is that the boxer will win the early rounds only to have the puncher come on late. That wasn’t the case here, for in the first three rounds Cotto piled up advantages of 32-25 (total connects), 15-12 (jab connects) and 17-13 (power connects). Foreman threw slightly more punches in that span (107-101) and succeeded in keeping the outputs down (35.6 punches per round to 33.6 for Cotto) but still trailed because his deeds weren’t sufficient to offset what Cotto was doing.

Foreman’s best round was the fourth as he led Cotto in connected power shots for the only time in the fight (9-8). Cotto still out-landed him overall 14-11 and the margin would only grow larger.

The wearing-down process had already begun in the fifth and sixth (Cotto had out-landed Foreman 23-16 overall) when Foreman’s right knee suddenly gave out. Without full mobility Foreman was a sitting duck and Cotto took advantage by throwing 65 and landing 29, 27 of which was power shots (all fight highs). Forced to rumble, all of Foreman’s 10 connects was power shots and he failed to land a jab for the only time in the fight.

From that point forward it became a matter of time and fortitude and under the circumstances Foreman did better than most. Cotto, however proved to be too much of a match physically and statistically.

Despite the body-shot ending, the PunchZone stats showed that each man concentrated his attack to the head. Of Cotto’s 97 head connects, 54 struck the chin while 31 lefts and 12 rights got in. The vast majority of Foreman’s 55 head connects were produced by right hands (32) while the left hit 18 times and five punches struck Cotto’s chin.

Cotto’s hook logged 13 body connects while the right hit five times while Foreman’s 16 body connects was evenly distributed. Neither registered a low blow.

The co-feature saw Vanes Martirosyan use his superior height, reach and movement to capture a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten “Mean” Joe Greene.

After an evenly contested first five rounds that saw Greene build a 53-48 edge in overall connects, the Armenian imposed his style in the bout’s second half and pulled away. In rounds 6-10 he out-landed Greene 75-37 overall, 23-12 in jabs and, most importantly, 52-25 in power connects.

He swept Greene in all 15 statistical categories during that span and that surge enabled him to record sizeable advantages on the scorecards and the punch counts. Martirosyan landed 133 of 416 (32 percent) overall to Greene’s 87 of 386 (23 percent). As expected, the taller Martirosyan out-jabbed his rival (40 of 191, 21 percent to 29 of 222, 13 percent) and his strategic superiority was such that he also led in the power categories (93 of 225, 41 percent to Greene’s 58 of 164, 35 percent).

The PunchZone statistics revealed one major reason why Greene couldn’t summon up enough “Mean” – his lack of body connects. Tellingly, the southpaw Greene (a natural right-hander) failed to land a single right hook to Martirosyan’s body while his straight lefts connected 10 times. Of his 76 head connects, 46 were to the chin while the right registered 19 connects and the left 11.

Of Martirosyan’s 107 head connects, the left hand produced 45 while the right hit 31 times and 31 blows struck Greene'’ chin. Somewhat strangely, Martirosyan’s right – which has to travel a longer distance – logged 17 body connects while the left logged eight hits. Each registered one low blow.