Foster turns it on late to defend title
O'Shaquie Foster is a boxing technician. At times, he starts slow as he figures out the angles and timing of his opponent. Once he's done all the calculations, he pours it on.
Abraham Nova was on the receiving end of that flurry with Foster knocking him down in the final round and earning a split decision win to retain his World Boxing Council junior lightweight title Friday night at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The 30-year-old Foster, who grew up in Orange but lives and trains in Houston, won the fight on two judges' scorecards 116-111 and 115-112, while losing on another 114-113. Two of the judges had the fight even through six rounds, but Foster (22-2, 12 KOs) took over in the seventh as Nova (23-2) appeared to tire.
“My rhythm was off tonight. It's all good. We came home with the win, so I can't complain,” said Foster, who won his first world title a year ago and now has successfully defended it twice. “I'm a 12round fighter and I know how to make judgments through the night. So, he came on strong in the beginning, but I found my rhythm and his timing, and then I started picking it off.”
That much was clear in the 12th round when Foster landed a right hand to the temple, then followed with a left hook that landed cleanly on the jaw and sent Nova into the ropes for a
knockdown with just 20 seconds left in the fight.
Nova argued that he actually slipped, but replays confirmed it as a clean knockdown
“O'Shaquie is a great fighter. He did hit me, but I did slip,” Nova said. “I lost my balance. I wasn't hurt.”
Foster landed 88 power punches in the fight compared to Nova's 74. He also landed those shots at a 39% clip, compared to Nova's 22%.
Foster appeared to be in a bit of trouble early. He wasn't hurt, but he also wasn't landing many punches and in the fifth round, Nova hit him in the bicep on the right arm with an inadvertent elbow. For the rest of the fight, Foster appeared to be shaking his right arm trying to loosen it up.
“I don't want to make any excuses, but when I went to throw a right hand,
his elbow hit the middle of my bicep, so it kind of tightened my stuff up, but it's all good,” Foster said.
Foster, who signed a deal with Top Rank late last year, is expected to fight on ESPN again this summer. Ideally, he'd like one of the other champions at 130 pounds, but he's been public about the difficulty of getting WBO champion Emanuel Navarrete or IBF champion Joe Cordina to agree to a fight. That leaves WBA titleholder Lamont Roach as an option. Foster also mentioned the possibility of fighting the winner of Oscar Valdez and Liam Wilson, who face each other March 29.
Roach must have been watching, because soon after the fight was over, he tweeted congratulations to Foster, saying, “Call Bob (Arum), tell him to handle that business and we can make it happen.”