2024 was the year for split decisions and southpaws – both the full-time and part-time varieties – in the Houston boxing scene. Split decisions were plentiful in five of the nine categories this year. The winners of the Female Fighter of the Year, Comeback of the Year were bonafide southpaws as was the local boxer involved in Fight of the Year. Fighter of the Year and Knockout of the Year were won by part time southpaws, also known as switch hitters. But enough about lefties; without further fanfare, let’s get right to the point.
Fighter of the Year: O’Shaquie Foster
As the only Houston boxer to hold a world title in 2024, Foster, 23-3 (12 KOs), wins the top award for the second year running but what a difference a year makes; he went from a spectacularly thrilling 2023 to a drearily humdrum, not to mention controversial, 2024. Foster ended the year with a 2-1 ledger, all split decisions with two fights against the same opponent no less. His loss was a fight he clearly won and his two victories were so razor close nobody would have been shocked if they went the other way.
In February, Foster defended his 130-pound belt, dropping Abraham Nova in the 12th round to eke out a split decision. In July he took on 2016 Olympic gold medalist Robson Conceicao of Brazil who had previously unsuccessfully challenged for world titles against Oscar Valdez, Emanuel Navaratte and Shakur Stevenson. Foster outboxed and out-foxed Conceicao for 12 rounds only to lose his title in the robbery of the year. An immediate rematch was ordered four months later and this time, with competent judges in place, Foster regained his belt by the narrowest of split decisions, 115-113 twice and 113-115.
To be fair, Foster took on two awkward fighters in 2024, Conceicao especially, with infuriatingly difficult styles that are near impossible to look against, win or lose. Just ask Valdez, Navaratte and Stevenson. With any luck, he has turned the page of nightmare opponents and can look forward to more fan-friendly style matchups in 2025, perhaps title unifications against Anthony Cacace, Denys Berinchyk or Navarette.
2023 winner – O’Shaquie Foster
Female Fighter of the Year: Virginia Fuchs
In just her fourth professional bout, Fuchs,4-0 (1 KO) outpointed previously-undefeated Adelaida Ruiz, 16-1-1 (8 KOs) to claim an interim 115-pound world title. It was a competitive fight in which Fuchs’ superior skill set prevailed over Ruiz’s abundant advantage in experience. Fuchs, a southpaw, utilized zippy footwork to change directions and create openings for combos. Tough and feisty, Ruiz returned fire with gusto but it was Fuchs who dictated the action with her educated right jab that allowed her to land the first and last punches of the exchanges.
At the end of 10 rounds Fuchs was awarded the victory by split scores of 100-90, 97-93 and 93-97. Upon removal of her gloves, Fuchs exposed a grotesquely bloodied dislocated thumb that will likely sideline her for a while.
A latecomer to boxing after running cross country in college, Fuchs represented the United States at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where, through the luck of the draw, she was unfortunate enough to face eventual gold medal winner Stoyka Krasteva in the second round of the tournament.
2023 winner – Marlen Esparza
Fight of the Year: Hamzah Sheeraz TKO11 Austin Williams
This was an intriguing high-stakes, cross-Atlantic matchup between two blue chip middleweight prospects that appeared to be a tossup, at least on paper. Kudos to both fighters for stepping up to the challenge and risking their undefeated records at this juncture of their careers.
Williams and Sheeraz were just about even in terms of skills, speed, power and experience, and it showed as soon as the fight got underway. The action fluctuated between cerebral and savage as both fighters took turns out-maneuvering and rattling each other with power shots. Williams, a southpaw, inflicted the most serious damage with his straight left and Sheeraz returned the favor with his straight right.
But Sheeraz held an inherent advantage that Williams had no way of equalizing – size. He stood at six-foot-three, three inches taller than Williams, and once he started to figure out how to use his size and reach to beat Williams to the punch, the writing was on the wall. Shortly after the midway point of the fight, Sheeraz began dominating, breaking down Williams with long, spearing punches. Williams remained game and determined but his assaults became increasingly futile and desperate as the fight wore on.
A short, compact right cross sent Williams to the canvas in the tenth as he lunged in to close the gap. After an identical punch buckled Williams again in the eleventh, Sheeraz pounced on his wounded prey with a volley of shots that prompted the referee to step in, with little protest from Williams and his handlers.
The victory elevated Sheeraz from prospect to contender. Williams, the 2022 Prospect of the Year, might have dropped a few rungs down the ladder but he passed a major gut check with his gallant and courageous effort. Williams, 17-1 (12 KOs) returned to the win column with a TKO over Gian Garrido, 11-2 (8 KOs) in November. Sheeraz, 21-0 (17 KOs), too, added a stoppage win to his record before year’s end.
2023 winner – O’Shaquie Foster TKO12 Rocky Hernandez
Knockout of the Year: Giovanni Marquez TKO2 Thomas Guillemette
Having gone the distance in his last three victories, the last one by split decision, scoring an early one-punch knockout in front of his hometown crowd must have been a welcome adrenaline rush and breath of fresh air for Marquez. Granted, Guillemette, 8-3 (4 KOs), who was stopped in his previous fight, was not the sturdiest nor savviest of opponents but he came to fight and was a few notches above the garden-variety palooka.
Marquez, 12-0 (6 KOs), fought the entire bout for as long as it lasted. from his back foot in a cross-armed/shoulder-roll posture while shooting out left jabs to feel out his opponent. A switch hitter, he had demonstrated a good spectrum of versatility in the past with the propensity to box from range or fight inside from either stance. But against Guillemette, he opted to experiment with a defensive mode of combat with which he wasn’t too comfortable as he sporadically lost his footing and had to reset. Guillemette offered some resistance and landed a few solid rights but nevertheless allowed Marquez, 24, to continue to dabble with an unfamiliar style rather than press the action and seize the upper hand.
The end was sudden and surreptitious at the same time. Just when it appeared Marquez had committed to an ill-suited style, he stole a page from the Mayweather playbook and executed a pull-counter culminating with a perfectly-timed right that exploded on the Frenchman’s chin sending him crumpling in a heap. Guillemette somehow managed to beat the count but his spaghetti legs and dazed demeanor left the referee little choice but to call a halt.
Even Marquez, last year’s Prospect of the Year, seemed surprised by the knockout, but perhaps more so that after a three-fight streak sans stoppage, he would be the 2024 recipient of Knockout of the Year.
2023 winner – Jordan White KO1 Eridson Garcia
Prospect of the Year: Andreas Katzourakis 15-0 (10 KOs)
Junior middleweight Katzourakis had a busy 2024, ending the year at 4-0 (1 KO) with three of those bouts being action-packed enough for Fight-of-the-Year consideration. After starting off the year with a stay-busy stoppage over a 5-5 fighter, Katzourakis edged out a majority decision over Uzbek Kudratillo Abdukakhorov, 20-4 (12 KOs) in May. The Greek warrior was back in action three months later eking out a split decision against previously unbeaten Robert Terry, 12-1-1 (4 KOs). Then in November Katzourakis squeaked past Brandon Adams, 25-4 (16 KOs), again by split decision in the Upset of the Year.
A transplant to Houston from Greece, Katzourakis, 27, is a former kickboxer who joined the stable of Ronnie Shields in 2021. His fan-friendly, high-volume punching style, reminiscent of Juan Diaz, guarantees he will be a ticket seller whether he comes into a fight a favorite or underdog. His blows are bruising and plentiful but he has yet to display one-punch knockout power. So far so good in terms of his punch resistance but he has yet to pass a significant chin check. In 2024 Katzourakis proved proficient enough to narrowly defeat fellow prospects/fringe contenders but to reach the next level he will need to add more dimensions and a measure of finesse to his rock-em, sock-em game.
Comeback of the Year: Eridson Garcia
Junior lightweight Garcia went 2-0 (1 KO) in 2024 following his devastating and disastrous first-round, one-punch knockout loss to Jordan White last year (2023 Knockout of the Year). Garcia’s first round stoppage over journeyman Jose Santos Gonzalez 23-14-1 (13 KOs) in March was largely inconsequential but his July win over a very competent William Foster III, 18-2 (11 KOs) put his career back on an upward trajectory. Most importantly, Garcia, 19-1 (12 KOs), showed none of the gun-shyness, jitters or self doubt that sometimes afflict fighters who had recently been brutally flattened for the full count.
Garcia-Foster was about a 50-50 matchup on paper, but in the ring Garcia simply managed to read and adapt to his opponent better than vice versa. A southpaw, he zeroed in on Foster’s weak points and let his hands go fluidly but not recklessly. He kept his cool under fire, never wavered from the game plan and exuded the same level of confidence he had prior to his only loss. There was nothing riveting or exceptional about his performance but it was disciplined, workmanlike and good enough to earn him a convincing points victory plus the Comeback of the Year award.
2023 winner – Jermall Charlo
Upset of the Year: Andreas Katzourakis W10 Brandon Adams
A perennial fringe middleweight contender and spoiler, Adams, 25-4 (16 KOs) entered the fight as roughly a 3-1 favorite, largely due to his experience against higher-caliber opponents. He had won the 2018 Contender tournament, defeating Shane Mosely Jnr in the finals and in 2019, he challenged Jermall Charlo for a world title losing a lopsided decision. But his greatest claim to fame came in 2022 when he stopped then-undefeated Serhii Bohachuk who was 18-0 (18 KOs), something not even Virgil Ortiz, who also had a 100 percent knockout rate at the time, could do in 2024.
True to his style, Katzourakis, 15-0 (10 KOs), took the fight into the pressure cooker from the outset, forcing a torrid pace and tirelessly chopping away to the head and body with both fists. Slick and defensively sound, Adams turned his shoulders, kept a tight guard and rarely allowed Katzourakis to land more than one or two clean shots at a time. Whenever Katzourakis had to reset, Adams returned fire with volleys of his own but Katzourakis too proved a difficult target by keeping his chin down, gloves up and changing levels by dipping and ducking. Katzourais never relented, kept chugging forward and refused to let Adams seize any kind of sustained momentum for more than a few isolated moments at a time. After 10 rounds of frenetic give-and-take action, the Greek fighter was rewarded for his aggression via split decision. It might not have been the most decisive of victories but it was hard-fought and gritty enough to earn Upset of the Year.
Round of the Year: Round 12 – O’Shaquie Foster W12 Abraham Nova
A general rule of thumb in boxing is, in a razor-close fight the fighter who scores the knockdown should get the nod, and such was the case when Foster made the second defense of his 130-pound alphabet belt against Nova. Close and competitive throughout, it was anybody’s guess as to who was ahead going into the final round. As the clock ticked away in the closing seconds of the fight, Foster landed a left hook that sent Nova stumbling to the canvas. The punch was not particularly hard and Nova seemed more off balance than hurt but it was a legitimate knockdown that gave Foster a 10-8 round.
As it turned out, the knockdown was crucial to the outcome. Like most other rounds, the 12th was closely contested prior to Nova touching down. But had Nova remained on his feet AND won the round, the fight would have ended in a draw. Official scoring aside, the knockdown also served to validate and justify the victory for Foster in the court of public opinion.
Trainer of the Year: Bobby Benton and Aaron Navarro
Benton and Navarro, as co-trainers of Fighter of the Year O’Shaquie Foster and Comeback of the Year Eridson Garcia, win this award hands down for the third year running.
Among the other boxers under their wings are former two-time world titleholder Regis Prograis and perennial gatekeeper Miguel Flores. Benton and Navarro have blended their expertise to develop fighters and brainstorm strategies for over two decades at the Main Boxing Gym in downtown Houston, with Dwight Pratchett often playing a strong supporting role in their collaborations. Outside of their association, Navarro has a role in mentoring Female Fighter of the Year Virginia Fuchs, and Benton serves as chief second to former 154-pound titleholder and current bareknuckle champion Austin Trout.
2023 winner – Bobby Benton and Aaron Navarro
Read the full article here
