By: Sean Crose
O’Shaquie Foster had a title to defend on Saturday night in Houston, the WBC junior lightweight title. Foster may not have been looked at as one of the sport’s shining stars, but he still was regarded as a quality fighter who knew how to deliver. Raymond Ford, Foster’s opponent, also knew how to deliver. He was hungry, very hungry. He had previously been the WBA featherweight champion, after all. And he wanted once again to have a world title belt in his possession. Foster’s job of course was to keep just that from happening. It was, at the very least, an interesting pairing.
Aside from Foster literally throwing his man out of the ring in the first round, it was a polished, sharp battle of wits and skill during the first half of the scheduled 12 round affair. Sure enough, it was a tough battle to score, as each man did some good work. It wasn’t a slug fest. It was interesting, however. Here were two determined, fine tuned fighters with a lot on the line. There was no room for error, something each man was keenly aware of; which is probably why neither let it all hang out in the first six rounds.
The second half of the fight ended up belonging to Foster who simply outlasted his man. Ford did his best and he did very, very well for himself but it wasn’t enough. As they say, when you’re fighting the champ, you have to take it from the champ, and Ford wasn’t able to take the fight from Foster despite doing very well for himself. All in all it was an interesting fight. Not a great fight but an interesting fight with two high-skilled individuals looking razor sharp if not exactly explosive. Suffice to say the judges gave a majority decision win to Foster.
Immediately after the scores were read, Foster squared off in the ring for a verbal back and forth with Shakur Stevenson, who he would clearly love to fight. One had to admire Foster’s confidence, for Stevenson would likely be a prohibitive favorite if the two men actually agreed to fight. The night belonged to the hometown, favorite Foster however. He fought hard and he earned it. “I started off a little rusty,” he said in the post fight interview. “I knew I was going to start picking him apart.”
And as for the future? “Y’all know who I want,” he said. Indeed we do. But with all the options potentially out there for Stevenson, does he really have any interest in squaring off with Foster? What’s more, a Foster fight with Emmanuel Navarette would lead to a unified titlist in the junior lightweight division. Regardless, Foster has shown that he himself now has considerable options to focus on. That’s what happens when a titlist wins against solid competition the way Foster won against Ford this evening in Texas. Solid wins can lead to big fights, and Foster is certainly looking for big fights.
Tonight was a prime example of what happens when one fighter simply has more in the tank than another. Ford did very well for himself while he had the energy to perform effectively. He still performed effectively once his energy began to leave him, but he didn’t perform well enough to win the junior lightweight title off of Foster. With that being said, Ford still has his career ahead of him. He’s been a world titlist before and he may will end up a world titlist again. For now though, the WBC junior lightweight title remains secure in Foster’s possession.
