By Steven Cummings
WBC super featherweight champion O’Shaquie Foster retained his title with a 12-round majority decision over Ray Ford on Saturday night night in Houston, TX. Foster (25-3, 12 KOs) came on down the stretch and separated himself from Ford (18-2-1, 8 KOs) with superior boxing skills. Official scores were 118-110, 116-110 and 114-114.
InTheCorner.net scored it 116-112.
The main event of the Eddie Hearn-promoted card featured a grudge match between Foster and Ford, who went at each other in the pre-fight buildup. The early rounds were tense, with both fighters cautiously looking for openings over the first couple of frames. The southpaw Foster and the conventional fighter, Ford, matched up awkwardly, with each stepping on the other’s lead foot over the first few rounds. Plus there was a clash of heads in round two, with no cuts caused.
With Foster narrowly winning a slow first round, the defending champ pushed Ford into the ropes, face-first, and Ford ended up going all the way to the floor. A point could have been deducted, but Referee Jon Schorle chose instead to give both fighters a stern warning.
Foster had the advantage from the outside, darting in for some quick combinations and then moving away from Ford’s counters. The first have of the match was evenly fought but starting in round six, his gameplan remained effective while Ford was only able to get single shots in here and there.
Foster built a lead going into the later rounds. Ford landed a couple of big shots in the ninth and 10th but Foster had his best round in the 11th. A two-fisted attack put Ford on the ropes, bleeding from the nose. Ford went on the attack in the 12th but it wasn’t enough.
Ray Ford had a lot of venom for O’Shaquie Foster in the build-up to the fight and even shoved him at the weigh-in. On fight night, Foster’s skills did the talking. Ford didn’t attack as much as he should have and that was likely because of Foster’s shiftiness. “Shock” could have been more assertive himself, when he took the initiative he got good results. But over 12 rounds, Foster was the better fighter on this night. Neither fighter is known for knockout power, so this one was likely to be a chess match, despite all of the verbal heat being thrown around in the weeks leading up to the event. Foster made the better moves.
After the decision was announced, ringside observer Shakur Stevenson quickly found his way into the ring (of course he did) and engaged in some back-and-forth shouting with Foster.
