O’Shaquie Foster Q&A: ‘Boxing Is Like Poetry to Me – It’s Like a Dance’

WBC junior lightweight titleholder O’Shaquie Foster recently took time out with BoxingScene to discuss his July 6 fight against Robson Conceicao, his journey from street life to boxing titleholder and his aspirations for the future, among other topics.

BoxingScene: You have a fight coming up against Robson Conceicao. What do you make of him as an opponent?

Foster: I think he’s a great fighter. I have wanted to share the ring with him for a while just because he has been in the ring with the other champions. I think he’s gonna be a great opponent, and [I can] separate myself from certain guys that already faced him. He just had a draw with [Emanuel] Navarrete. I’m looking at this fight as a unification fight – I’m not taking him lightly at all. A lot of people count me out in this fight, so I am going to have to really show them.

BS: Conceicao has a unique right hand.

Foster: Definitely. He throws a lot of punches from weird angles, but that’s what makes him dangerous. You got to stay sharp. I’m not looking over him.

BS: Signing with Top Rank, that was a pretty big deal, right? 

Foster: It feels great. I feel that all I got to do is put in the work now. Not so much the mentality of “Would they rob me?” or “Would they do this?” [But] I can just go in and train and be the best that I can be, so it’s great for me being with Top Rank. They keep me busy. They talk to us about everything. I love it, it’s great.

BS: How did you rate yourself in your Top Rank debut against Abraham Nova?

Foster: I really got in my own head. I had an injury before the fight that I didn’t disclose to anyone, and if you pay attention to that fight and you pay attention to the [Eduardo] “Rocky” [Hernandez] fight and the fights before that, I’m an on-my-feet, dancing kinda guy. That fight, I had basically torn my plantar fasciitis. So I was compensating a lot for my left foot, and it just made me [stand] more in the pocket. I couldn’t really get loose like I wanted to. I’m fully healthy now. I didn’t see that fight being as close as people thought. I mean, the early rounds, I gave him the second and I gave him the fourth, and then the fifth round on, I just started to dominate. People are used to seeing me fight in a certain way, so I understand.

BS: You were unhappy with performance? 

Foster: I mean, boxing is like poetry to me. It’s like a dance – it isn’t standing there and punching. But that’s what I had to do because I couldn’t maneuver. I’m looking to show everybody the difference.

BS: Did Joe Cordina losing his IBF junior lightweight title to Anthony Cacace mess up a potential future megafight with you?

Foster: He wasn’t going to fight me anyway. The guy who beat him, I think he would be willing to fight. We were in talks before I fought Rocky, so I think he’ll come back around for a unification fight. But I didn’t think Cordina was going to fight me anyway. They had too many chances.

BS: Did the outcome surprise you? 

Foster: Him getting stopped? Yes. Dude winning – no. I said it was a 50-50 fight. Because, like I said, I was basically in talks with [Cacace], so I had already studied him. I saw that he did some things that will give people problems, and he is tall. I saw that he did certain things that would give Cordina problems. So I kept telling people, it is a 50-50 fight. But I was surprised that he stopped him, for sure.

BS: Will you ever get to fight Joe Cordina at any point in your career?

Foster: Probably not. I wish. Honestly, that’s a name that I just want to fight, I don’t even care if he has a title anymore. I still want to just beat him up. But I don’t see it happening. First off, I think him and Matchroom already knew what I was going to do to him. I don’t think he really wants the fight because everything was “Oh, he’s not a big enough name.” Then he goes and fights Edward Vasquez. “Oh, he’s not a big enough name.” Then he goes and fights Anthony Cacace. Like, bro, what are you talking about? I’m the champion. I mean, we really never heard people say this about other champions in their division unless they’re running scared. I don’t see that fight happening.

BS: Any chance of bringing a fight to Orange, Texas?

Foster: I think it could happen next year – 2025, I think it can happen. I just got a couple fighters I have to get out; Conceicao, and hopefully we can get Oscar at the end of the year. I’ll take off from there and hopefully bring some big fights back down here.

BS: Oscar Valdez? 

Foster: I mean, hopefully the WBO upgrades him because he is the WBO interim [junior lightweight titleholder]. That’s what he fought Liam Wilson for. So if Navarrete doesn’t come back down, then they’re going to upgrade him.

BS: Do you think Navarrete will come back to junior lightweight? It feels like his lifestyle won’t allow him to fight at his optimal weight class.

Foster: It’s not normal for people to go up and then come back down. Especially, like you said, with his kind of body type. So I really don’t see him coming back down. I see him getting the big fights at [lightweight] and letting their belt just go to Valdez.

BS: What about Navarrete’s approach to boxing is normal? 

Foster: Definitely not the way he fights.

BS: What has been behind the recent social media trash talk between you and Lamont Roach Jr.?

Foster: It was some stuff said that was taken out of context, and then some words flew. I always had a good relationship with the guys out of the East Coast because I used to fight them a lot coming up – especially the Headbangers [in Washington, D.C.] and all that. So we always had a mutual respect. A couple of words were said and took out of context. So we started going at each other crazy. But at the end of the day, we talk, it’s a respect thing, and we’re going to get inside the ring. But all that disrespecting each other outside of the ring … I don’t know, I mean, it’s cool, you know, talk your stuff. But I’ve been known dude for a while; he never really just gave me any bad energy as far as just trying to approach me on some talking-tough stuff.

BS: Was part of what you picked up on that he hit you with street talk, not sports talk? You came up pretty tough, so was that what you were reacting to?

Foster: Yeah, I mean, because it’s kind of like I have to blur the lines when people talk in a certain way and people want to beef with me. I really was in the streets. So taking that mentality, you said it perfectly: I had to basically be looking at things as far as, it is all promotion just to push the fight, because some stuff you’re just not used to.

BS: Your cutman, Aaron Navarro, said a few months ago that Showtime executive Gordon Hall told him that before you fought Ray Vargas, you were a completely different fighter than the guy who fought Rolando Chinea. What was the difference?

Foster: Yeah, I think Showtime, they saw the real street mentality that I had. I really didn’t want to talk to them too much. I had that mean mug on my face like “I don’t know y’all.” Like, “I don’t have much to say to y’all, I’m here to fight.” You can see it on me. Even when I go back and watch the videos, like, you can see it on me. I didn’t even look like a boxer; I looked like a guy you took out the streets and just brought him to the gym, then brought him to the fight. So it’s a big difference, and I’m glad I was able to look at that and grow from that. I don’t shy away from it, because it’s my past and it built me. But, most definitely, Showtime saw the big jump.

BS: Just on a human level, how hard was it having grown up as a street guy but knowing that you would have to change a little bit to get to reach your goals and get to the next level?

Foster: It really took me minimizing the chances that I’ll take on the people that I’m around. People will put you in a situation, and that’s the biggest thing – like, somebody can get into something with somebody and you over there chilling with them, they pull up shooting. I just erased myself from those kinds of situations. I try to stay in the gym, have my fun as far as going to the city and hanging out with my family and stuff like that. Outside of that, you really are not going to see me doing too much. I try to keep it real low-key.

BS: How dangerous were some of the situations you were around during those earlier points in your life?

Foster: I saw a bullet hit the windshield, come across me, hit my partner right here in the next seat. A little situation happened before the Rey Vargas fight, hanging out in front of my people’s crib. Somebody rolled up. They on that with somebody that I’m around. I don’t know if the gun jammed or what, but it happened like that. So there’s been a whole lot of situations that I’ve been around that happened like that. If I can see it coming and I know how it happened … I learned from every one of them. So I took every one of them and was like, “Alright, we’re gonna minimize these chances.”

BS: Is Shakur Stevenson a future fight for you?

Foster: it could be. I could see it, unless, when I go to 135, he move up to 140 – and that keeps happening. Other than that, I see our paths crossing. It’s probably going to have to. I’m cool with people, and I came up with people, but these people really aren’t my friends. I want to fight, and we can be cool after, but I want to fight all these guys. How can I say – if I’m a WBC champion and I’m moving up to 135 and he’s a WBC champion – how am I going to say I am not going to fight him? That has to happen if I move up and he’s still there, for sure.

BS: Is the goal unification, undisputed or moving up to lightweight in a few fights? 

Foster: The goal for me now is to try to go undisputed. When Cordina had to build, I didn’t see it being a thing because, like I said, I was a free agent and they had opportunities and the first thing they did was go say I overpriced myself. Literally, we never even talked about a price with dude. It was just stuff like that. So I was like, forget the undisputed because you know he is going to hide the belt. Now that the other dude got it, I think it’s the route for me, you know? I can get Valdez and I can get Cacace, then Lamont Roach.

BS: In the Rocky Hernandez fight, you really didn’t want him to touch your belt. We saw you tell him that before the fight. What do you remember about fight week?

Foster: He kept trying to touch the belt, and it was funny to me, because I wasn’t going to let him. That whole week, you had [Matchroom Boxing CEO] Eddie Hearn – it was his show – they were talking like Hernandez was the champion. We were at one of the press conferences. They talked about him and [Eduardo] “Sugar” Nunez. We were like “Whoa, what is up with these people?” They was talking like I was the B-side, like I wasn’t even the champion. It was cool, because even at the press conference, the other promoter that was involved – I think his name was like Pepe Gomez or something like that – he even said in a press conference that Rocky was his guy, you know? So we already knew what time it was, you know?

It was fun, though. Man, the whole fight we already knew what we were going to do. We did not know the scorecards were going to look like that. But we knew what we were going to do. We knew he was going to come on strong early and my plan was to stop him in the later rounds. That was the whole plan. But I’m glad it had to be in dramatic fashion, because the way they tried to do me, it just backfired in their face, big time.

BS: You remember anything trainer Bobby Benton told you in the corner, maybe a round he told you to step on the gas? 

Foster: In the fourth round, we saw the scorecards was 0-4. Then in the eighth round, I think we were 0-8. Come back, we were like, “You’re going to need a knockout.” That’s all he kept saying: “We’re going to need a knockout.” I was just like, alright. I knew I was going to catch him, but it was one of the things where the time was clicking, your belt is about to be gone. If you let this time run out, you ain’t even got a chance on the scorecards. Don’t even think about that. You got to really knock this dude out. It was fun, man. It showed me what I can actually do if I put my mind to it. I love the big moments. When everything is against me, that’s when I feel like I am at my peak, because it’s always been like that for me. I always had to climb out of it, so I’m used to it.