Foster seeks to add to Houston’s titles
Houston is still basking in the glow of an Astros championship, but quietly, the city is becoming a cradle of boxing champions.
Houston is home to current world champions Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo and Regis Prograis. On Saturday night at San Antonio’s Alamodome, O’Shaquie Foster expects to join that list when he fights two-division champion Rey Vargas for the World Boxing Council’s vacant super featherweight title on the main event of a Showtime card.
“I’m ready for this moment,” Foster said recently before a workout at Main Street Boxing Gym in downtown Houston. “This is what I’ve been waiting for since I was a little kid, and I’m getting the opportunity when I’m at the top of my game. I know that I’m ready to go out there and put on a show and bring home a world title.”
His confidence isn’t unwarranted. Despite suffering two losses early in his career, Foster (19-2, 11 KOs), who grew up in Orange but has lived and trained in Houston for the past six years, has gone on to win nine straight fights, including upsetting a couple undefeated opponents.
He’ll have to do it again against Vargas (36-0, 22 KOs), who already won belts at 122 pounds and 126 pounds. Now, he’s moving up another weight class and is a slight favorite over Foster to join an elite club of Mexican fighters like Canelo Alvarez, Julio Cesar Chavez, Juan Manuel Marquez, Erik Morales and Marco Anotonio Barrera who have won titles in three divisions.
“It’s a big goal of mine to become part of the club of three-division champions,” Vargas said Thursday. “I want to be one of the best that there’s ever been in Mexican boxing.”
Foster, 29, will be there to stop the coronation. Although he’ll be fighting just about 200 miles west of his home base, he knows there’s a chance he’s performing in front of a pro-Vargas crowd as San Antonio’s boxing enthusiasts tend to root for Hispanic fighters. Jermell Charlo encountered the same atmosphere there when he fought Argentinian Brian Castaño in 2021. This is also Vargas’ second straight fight at the Alamodome, winning over the crowd with his victory over Mark Magsayo for the 126-pound championship last summer.
“I’m coming to spoil the show,” Foster said. “I know he’s going to have the fans on his side, but by the end of the night the world is going to see what I’m really made of.”
Although Vargas will be the toughest opponent of his career, Foster has experience against elite competition. As an amateur, he came agonizingly close to a spot on the 2012 Olympic team, losing a narrow decision to future world champion Joseph Diaz in the final of the Olympic Trials. He also routinely trains with Prograis at Main Street Boxing Gym, and he’s worked a lot with former 130-pound champ Shakur Stevenson.
Foster’s slick style and ability to smoothly change stances usually gives opponents issues. Vargas, on the other hand, is a little more unorthodox, but is extremely patient, having not secured a stoppage in more than six years. The 32-year-old also already has been in seven world title fights and has picked up plenty in the mind game department.
“What I’ve noticed from watching O’Shaquie is that he’s kind of veered from his path and started to do some things differently ahead of this fight,” Vargas said. “It makes me think he’s feeling the pressure of this fight …”
“He knows that I’m not just anybody and I know he’s lost sleep from the anxiety of getting ready to face me. I know that he likes to fight from either stance, but I’ve got a plan to counter anything he brings.”
Although he might feel differently in the bright Alamodome lights and the Showtime cameras on Saturday night, Foster, so far, has laughed off Vargas’ words.
“I just woke up, so I’m not losing any sleep thinking about him,” said Foster, while wearing a Houston Rockets cap and hoodie at Thursday’s press conference. “He can talk that talk, but he better know that I’m not Mark Magsayo or any of those guys he’s fought. The strength and the speed is different.”