O’Shaquie Foster is still salty about losing his WBC super featherweight title against #1 Robson Conceicao last Saturday night by a twelve-round split decision at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Foster’s assistance afterward that he not only deserved the decision but should have won every round suggests a disconnect from the reality of what happened. He got outworked by Conceicao, and that’s why the judges gave it to the talented Brazilian.
Conceicao Wanted It More
After the fight, Conceicao said Foster “didn’t come to fight” and was moving and playing defense. He’s right. Foster fought like a fighter who didn’t want to work hard.
That’s his style, though, because he barely pulled out victories in his last two fights by rallying late after getting worked over Abraham Nova and Eduardo Hernandez.
Foster only works part of the time during his fights because he lacks the desire to work hard, and he paid for it against the ambitious, well-schooled 2016 Olympic gold medalist Conceicao.
Unbelievably, Foster (22-3, 12 KOs) claimed after the fight that he’d pitched a shutout, winning every round in his mind, and he felt that the judges had given him a raw deal by not giving him the victory.
The judges scored it 116-112, 115-113 for Conceicao, and 116-112 for Foster. My score was 117-111 in favor of Conceicao.
I watched the fight on a big-screen TV and didn’t see any problems with how the two judges scored it in favor of Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs). He was the busier fighter, throwing the shots, pushing the attack, and keeping Foster pinned to the ropes.
Foster’s Shakur-Esque Style: Defense Over Offense
Foster fought with his usual Shakur style, just trying to make Conceicao miss and only rarely throwing a punch back. His entire game was centered around his defense rather than throwing punches, but it was pure Shakur-eque stuff from the champion Foster. You can’t win like that against a fighter, throwing more and keeping you pinned against the ropes like Conceicao did.
In the championship rounds, Foster should have gone all out and thrown some punches, but instead, he stayed on the ropes, just trying to make Conceicao miss and ride his way to what he believed was a decision win.
It’s not a surprise that Foster didn’t push hard in the last four rounds because if he thought he was pitching a shutout, why would he take chances and throw? He was deluded and overconfident. Someone in his career should have impressed upon him the importance of hard-on offense and getting off the ropes.
In the end, Foster fought a stupid fight, costing him his belt. He did the same thing in his previous match against Abraham Nova but pulled out a decision by scoring a knockdown.
Defense Doesn’t Win Fights
“He didn’t come to fight. He didn’t seem to really want to fight me. I really wanted to fight him, and I went after the victory, and that was it,” said Conceicao to Fighthype about his win over Foster.
“O’Shaquie fight, I tell it to my fighters all the time. Defense is one thing, and offense is the other,” said trainer Kenny Ellis to MillCity Boxing, talking about last Saturday night’s fight that saw the talented Robson Conceicao finally get a fair shake with the judges with his twelve-round split decision over the defensive-minded Shakur-esque WBC super featherweight champion O’Shaquie Foster.
Ellis brings up a good point. Defense doesn’t win fights. Letting your hands go does, and Foster forgot that lesson. If you’re lazy and think you can win fights just on defense, you’re going to lose sooner or later, and it’s not happened to Foster.
“Defense will give you a long career, but because you’re slipping, you’re going defense, and you’re not scoring. That’s the defense. You’re losing punches. Every now and then, Foster would counter with one or two,” said Ellis.
“He was doing the shoulder roll, but he wasn’t responding like Floyd. Floyd would make you miss and make you pay. Every now and then, Foster would come with one shot here and there. The other guy [Conceicao] was actually working, and then you don’t know what the judges were looking at from their angle.”
Foster was trying to block and move with the punches that did land from Conceicao. He wasn’t countering anything, and he was riding with the shots. When he would attack, it always brief and then return to his shell.
I think the fans who are upset about Foster losing were his followers, and they couldn’t see the truth even with it right there in front of them.
A Lesson Learned for Foster
They didn’t want to see the ugly reality of their hero being exposed by the harder-working Brazilian Conceicao, who learned early on that success comes from hard work. You don’t hang back and expect the win to be given to you on a silver platter.
“O’Shaquie is on the ropes, and the [judges] are looking at his [Conceicao] back [throwing punches and being busier]. Even though he was missing some shots, they thought he was landing. Defense is a good thing, but hands win fights. He [O’Shaquie] wasn’t busy enough last night,” said Ellis.
Conceicao landed plenty of shots, especially the right-hand punches he threw at Foster. Those were getting through constantly, and he was always on the attack. Conceicao wasn’t backing up against the ropes to rest and play possum like Foster.
“You go back and watch the fight. Yeah, he was making him miss a lot of times. ‘Oh, look at what I did.’ You’re not winning. You’re just making the man miss. Come back and make him miss and make him pay. He wasn’t doing that. He was doing it in spurts last night. That was it. He wasn’t busy enough.
“Defense is a beautiful thing, but you’re not winning because you make a man miss. You’re not winning. Hands win fights. He was smooth on his feet. He was making him miss, but he wasn’t countering back with nothing. I think they made the right call,” said Ellis, believing that the judges did the right thing by giving the win to Conceicao.
It’s great to have defense, but when that’s all you have, it won’t be enough if you’re fighting a good opponent and quality judges are working the fight. A set of three lesser judges might have given Foster a decision last Saturday, but not these three brilliant officials.
“His defense was right, but he wasn’t coming back with anything. I didn’t see now shut-out. It was in spurts,” said Ellis, reacting to being told that Foster had said after the fight that he felt he had pitched a shutout of Conceicao.
Foster’s entire game involved him fighting in spurts, being lazy, and letting Conceicao do all the hard work.
If Foster’s trainer wasn’t giving him a heads-up about how dire his situation was, he needs to dump that person and find someone who understands the flow of a fight and can tell his fighter the bitter truth, even if they’re deluded into thinking they’re winning by a shutout.
Dirty game. One of the easiest fights of my life we will be doing everything possible to make this right. But I will tell yall this in the rematch he not making it to 12 promise you that!!
— S H⚡️C K (@OshaquieFoster) July 7, 2024
