Boxing back at ballpark in Bronx

NEW YORK – Yuri Foreman is the junior middleweight champ, an aspiring rabbi with an engaging back story. The drawing card is Miguel Cotto, the revered ex-titleholder beloved by millions of Puerto Rican fans.

It’s possible that neither will be the star Saturday night.

That’s because their title fight is at Yankee Stadium, the first time baseball’s winningest team has hosted boxing since Muhammad Ali defeated Ken Norton at its old ballpark on Sept. 28, 1976. The Yankees’ new, $1.5 billion monument to success and excess might very well capture the spotlight when the TV cameras roll.

“The building is built for this,” Yankees executive Lonn Trost said Wednesday. “Anyone who realizes the significance of attending the first fight in this facility, and having a ticket to the first fight, that’s historical.”

History is a word that seems to encapsulate everything connected to the Yankees, whether you’re talking about their record 27 world titles or the great players who have performed inside their hallowed grounds.

Boxing stars once plied their trade between the white lines, too, inside a ring that was usually erected on the infield. Harry Greb fought under the famous Yankee Stadium facade, along with Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey and James Braddock.

Joe Louis fought the first of his record 11 bouts at Yankee Stadium, including his famous win over German champion Max Schmeling on June 22, 1938. The fight had significance beyond the sports pages, because it not only avenged an earlier loss by Louis in the same ballpark, but it struck a blow to the Nazi regime coming to power in Europe.

In later years, Jake LaMotta, Rocky Graziano and Sugar Ray Robinson were on the marquee, and Rocky Marciano won four straight fights at Yankee Stadium in the 1950s.

“The world used to center around it,” said Hall of Fame trainer Manny Steward, who will be in Cotto’s corner. “Boxing was Polo Grounds, Yankee Stadium. That’s what the center of the world used to be, not Las Vegas, not Germany. It was here, New York, and those were the biggest fights. Polo Grounds, Yankee Stadium, that was a certificate of greatness.”

Boxing fell out of favor at the old ballpark after the Ali-Norton fight, for a number of reasons. George Steinbrenner, who had bought the team three years earlier, was furious that the ring had ruined the infield, and drainage problems prevented anything from being erected in the outfield. The time period also coincided with the rise of casinos that offered exorbitant site fees, so marquee fights could serve to lure high rollers to their venues.

The Ali-Norton fight itself left a bitter taste for many involved.

Violence was already rampant in the Bronx during the 1970s, and the day of the bout, the NYPD decided to go on strike. Thousands of fans getting off the elevated train looked down at the chaos surrounding the stadium, turned around and went right back to Manhattan.

“We had 108 ticket-sellers for the walk-up, and we sold eight tickets,” said promoter Bob Arum, who is also behind the return fight at Yankee Stadium.

“We had everything planned. We had an exact break even, so the walk-up was the profit,” he said. “We expected we would walk away with a lot of money and sold eight tickets.”

The new facility has been designed to host a variety of events. While college football is on tap for fall, Saturday’s fight will be the first sporting event besides baseball since the monolithic structure opened last spring.