O’Shaquie Foster still can’t accept that he deserved to lose his fight against Robson Conceição earlier this year on July 6th.
This Saturday, Foster, 31, will be attempting to recapture his WBC 130-lb title from Conceicao in the main event at the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York. The event will be shown live on ESPN+.
The former WBC super featherweight champion Foster (22-3, 12 KOs) insists that he did enough to win despite being outworked by the 2016 Olympic gold medalist Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs) in every round of the fight and only fighting in brief spurts.
Conceicao showed that he wanted it more, attacking constantly, throwing more punches, and looking like he was in control of the fight. Foster looked like he was trying to win rounds doing to the minimum rather than putting in the hard work needed to hold onto his WBC super featherweight title. You could see the difference in ambition between the two. Conceicao wanted it more, and the judges could see that, too.
The fans were booing Foster at ringside for his safety-first, dull style at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. He fought a lot like Shakur Stevenson, who was performing in the main event, and the fans were not interested in seeing two of the same fighters on the card.
“You can always do more, but it’s as clear as day who won the fight. I outlanded him in every round. They’re going to find a reason just because the judges made a bad call. ‘Oh, they gave it to him for activity,’” said O’Shaquie Foster to the Sean Zittel channel, complaining about his loss to Robson Conceicao earlier this year on July 6th.
After all this time, how could Foster not know that he didn’t do enough? Some people don’t get it and can’t grasp the reality of their mistakes, no matter how obvious it is. If Foster doesn’t change the way he fights, he’s going to lose the rematch on Saturday, his career is going to sink even further than it is right now.
Right now, he sounds like a typical salty, sore loser, who can’t accept that he didn’t work hard enough to win. He should have lost his previous fight against Abraham Nova in February, too, because he was outworked there, too, and barely won a 12-round split decision. He didn’t learn from that fight, and it cost him against Conceicao.
“Everyone with an eye can see that fight wasn’t close,” said Foster about his defeat against Conceicao. “He couldn’t touch me. Yeah, I could have done more, you always can, but I don’t think that was going to play a part in the fight just having to put more activity. It was kind of easy.”
What is Foster talking about? “He couldn’t touch me.” Conceicao was hitting Foster repeatedly, outworking him, and making him look bad. Those fans weren’t booing Conceicao. They were booing Foster for initiating Shakur with his retreating style and his lack of offense. The fans wanted to be entertained, and Foster did not do that with his cautious style. Top Rank made the mistake of putting two of the same type of fighters on the July 6th card by having Shakur and Foster share it.
“It could have been the judges for what they like to see. It could have been activity. I’m not really stuck on that no more. I’m going to the future to make this wrong right. I’m looking at the positives as far as I can do more. That’s what I’m taking out of it. I’m not worried about the judges and none of that anymore.
“If they’re needed, that’s cool. I’m going in there to work. Basically, I’m not dwelling on the negatives of the past and all that. Like you said, I could have done more. I understand what I need to do now, and that’s where my mind is at.
“I understand who I and I understand how talented I am. I could have done more. That’s what it is. God and the universe told me, ‘You are one of the most talented fighters. Use it.’ I’m taking all that positive out of it. We’re going to turn it up a notch.
“You want to entertain. You want to show the fans, and give them something that they pay their money for. That’s why I look at it as a better opportunity for me to go out there and handle my business more. They were booing in my fight, and they were booing at the end.
“I wasn’t in the mode. I was like, ‘F*** them. Let them boo,’ because I’m like, ‘I gave you three fights this year. I’ve been going to war with guys. It’s cool. I can make it easy and get a unanimous decision.’ It kind of bit me. Now, I look at it a lot differently, like, it’s entertainment, and we got to go out and do it. We’re not taking no more easy routes out. We’re trying to put it on these boys every time now.
“Now, if I wasn’t so active fighting, and I didn’t have a round the year last year, then I probably would have taken it a lot more like, ‘Alright, bro. You got to get more active. You can’t have these people booing you and stuff.’ But I was like, ‘Alright, let them boo this one time.’ Unfortunately, the bad call happened. It’s all good,” said Foster, who still doesn’t seem to understand why the judges gave him the loss fully.
Do you notice Foster’s attitude? If the fans are booing, how do you not pick it up at that point and start fighting aggressively? For Foster to tune out the boos and continue to fight defensively, it suggests that he was confident that Top Rank would continue putting him on cards in the future. In other words, Foster didn’t feel he had to entertain the fans for him to continue getting choice spots on cards. That attitude is a bad one to have.
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