O’Shaquie Foster’s manager calls reaction to fight scoring ‘pure disbelief’

Keith Mills, the manager of O’Shaquie Foster, is still trying to process the details of Foster’s fight Saturday in Newark, New Jersey, and the controversial outcome that saw his fighter lose his WBC junior lightweight title to Robson Conceicao via a split decision.

One score was read 116-112 for Foster, but the other two judges awarded the fight to Conceicao, on scores of 115-113 and 116-112.

Mills, like many others who witnessed the fight, never thought the outcome was in jeopardy. He saw Foster (22-3, 12 KOs), 30, of Houston, landing the cleaner, more effective punches on Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs), 35, of Brazil. Despite CompuBox agreeing with him, the judges didn’t.

“Before signing with Top Rank, we were free agents and had to knock people out to retain our title,” Mills told BoxingScene. “We signed with Top Rank so that ‘Shock’ can just focus on his job of boxing and not have to worry about this exact thing.”

Mills further expressed his frustration, recalling being in the ring at the time of the decision and the confusion that he felt upon the decision being read.

“When I heard the first score they announced, 116-112 Robson – OK, I learned to stay cool in that moment,” Mills said. “I was positive that the next two scores would be a landslide for Shock, because sometimes in boxing the first judge is a shocker. But then the next two are what you come to expect. We thought we were going to walk away with an easy majority decision.”

They didn’t. Foster’s team lingered in the ring stunned. They have not yet filed an appeal to protest the decision but have told BoxingScene that it will be in the works in the coming days.

“Where do you find four rounds to give to Robson?” Mills asked. “I have no idea then, when 115-113 Robson is read … pure disbelief. I was in pure disbelief, to the point where – I know that this might sound silly – but to the point where I’m thinking they probably filled out the wrong side of the card accidentally. But that wasn’t the case.”

“It was clear as day,” said Mills. “There were times where you had to really find a round where Robson touched Shock. I mean clean. I don’t mean on the shoulders. I don’t mean on the elbows. I mean catching Shock with a clean, good shot.”

Mills then turned his attention to the judges, as despite Foster outlanding Conceicao in 10 of 12 rounds, according to CompuBox statistics, he made no excuses for what he saw.

“Robson and Shock are professional fighters who are to be judged by professional judges,” Mills said. “I would like to think this was incompetence.”

Mills even pointed out the experience of one of the judges, noting that Tony Lundy, who scored the bout 116-112, had “only worked, like, one true world championship fight, and that fight was July 30 of 2016.” The fight was Amanda Serrano versus Calista Silgado for the WBO women’s featherweight title, which resulted in a first-round knockout win for Serrano. Lundy’s last major fight was Jared Anderson’s knockout of George Arias in April 2023 – though Lundy has remained active on the regional circuit. 

The outcome seemed more frustrating to Mills given how sharp he believed Foster’s performance to be.

“We came in with a game plan – that was for Shock to box clean,” Mills said. “Robson looked slow. And there were so many things we could have taken advantage of, and Shock did that. His defense was on point. He was countering, his jab was on point and right on the money.”

The only difference between this fight and Foster’s dramatic 12th-round knockout of Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez was the absence of open scoring. Though many have criticized open scoring, which tells the fighters the scores between certain rounds, Foster, knowing where he stands in the fight, would seem to be a boxer who benefits from the system.

But not against Conceicao, when Mills couldn’t believe his own ears.

“It was an easy fight,” Mills said. “I was just listening to see what the scores would be. That’s all I was listening for.”