Oshaquie Foster is still upset over his 12-round split decision loss to No. 1-ranked fighter Robson Conceição in the WBC super featherweight title bout last Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Foster's post-fight assertion that he not only deserved the decision but should have won every round suggests a disconnect with the reality of what happened: Foster was outpowered by Conceição, which is why the judges awarded the victory to the talented Brazilian.
Conceição wanted more
After the fight, Conceição said that Foster “wasn't there to fight” and was just moving and defending, and he was right: Foster fought like a fighter who didn't want to fight hard.
But that's his style, and in his last two fights, he was outplayed by Abraham Nova and Eduardo Hernandez before battling back in the closing stages to squeeze out victories.
Foster's lack of motivation to train hard means he only spends a small amount of time practicing during matches, and he paid the price in his bout against the ambitious and well-trained 2016 Olympic gold medalist Conceição.
Incredibly, Foster (22-3, 12 KOs) claimed after the fight that he had won by shutout and that in his mind he had won every round, and felt wronged by the referee not awarding him the victory.
The judges scored the fight 116-112 for Conceição, 115-113 for Conceição, and 116-112 for Foster. I scored the fight 117-111 for Conceição.
I watched the fight on a big screen TV and had no problem with the two judges scoring it in favor of Conceição (19-2-1, 9 KOs), who was the busier man, throwing punches, attacking and forcing Foster against the ropes.
Foster's Shakur-esque style: Defense over offense
Foster fought in his usual Shakur style, trying to force Conceiçao to miss punches and rarely throwing punches. His fights were focused on defense rather than throwing punches, but the champion Foster's was very Shakur-esque. That's not how you beat a fighter like Conceiçao, who throws punches and keeps you pressed against the ropes.
In the deciding round, Foster should have thrown all his might and thrown punches, but instead he stayed on the ropes, fending off Conceição's attacks and trying to hang on to what he believed would be a decision victory.
It's not surprising that Foster didn't go all out in the last four rounds because if he thought he could get the shutout, why risk throwing? He was deluded and overconfident. Someone should have impressed upon him at some point in his career the importance of going all out and jumping over the ropes.
In the end, Foster lost the belt after making a stupid move, as he had done in his previous bout against Abraham Nova, but ended up winning by decision with a knockdown.
Defense alone cannot win the battle
“He didn't come here to fight. He didn't seem like he wanted to fight me. I really wanted to fight him and I wanted to win, and that's it,” Conceição told FightHype about his win over Foster.
“The Oshaqui fight, I always tell my guys: defense is one thing, offense is another,” trainer Kenny Ellis told Mill City Boxing. Ellis was speaking about last Saturday night's bout, in which the talented Robson Conceição finally got a fair shake from the judges by defeating the defensive-minded, Shakur-esque WBC super featherweight champion Oshaqui Foster by 12-round split decision.
Ellis makes a good point. You don't win games on defense alone. You win games by letting go. But Foster forgot that lesson. If you get lazy and think you can win games on defense alone, sooner or later you're going to lose, which Foster didn't do.
“Defense gets you a long career, but when you slip you're on the defensive and you can't score. That's defense. You get punched. Every now and then Foster will counter with a shot or two,” Ellis said.
“He was doing shoulder rolls, but he didn't react like Floyd did. Floyd makes you make mistakes and you pay for them. Every now and then, Foster gets a shot here and there. Other guys [Conceicao] I don't know if it actually worked. I don't know what the judges were looking at from their perspective.”
Foster was blocking Conceição's punches, trying to move, not doing anything in return, just riding the punches, and when he did attack, it was always short and he was back to normal.
I think the fans who are upset about Foster's loss are his supporters and just can't comprehend the truth even though it's right in front of their eyes.
Lessons learned by Foster
They didn't want to see the ugly truth of their hero being exposed by the harder-working Brazilian, Conceição, who learned early on that success comes from hard work. You can't just sit back and hope that victories are easily handed to you.
“Oshakey is in a difficult position; [judges] his [Conceicao] return [throwing punches and being busier]Even though he missed some shots, they thought he was landing. Defense is good, but hands win the battle. He [O’Shaquie] “We just weren't busy enough last night,” Ellis said.
Conceição landed a lot of punches, especially that right hand he landed on Foster. They were constant, and he was always aggressive. He never retreated to the ropes to rest or slack off like Foster did.
“Looking back at the game, he certainly made guys miss a lot of times. 'Oh man, look what I did.' You're not winning. You're just making guys miss. You come back and make them miss and make them pay. He wasn't doing that. He was just sporadic last night. That's it. He just wasn't busy enough.”
“The defence is beautiful, but you can't win by just dodging your opponent's attacks. You can't win. The fight is decided by the hands. He was smooth on his feet. He dodged his opponent's attacks but he didn't do anything to counterattack. I think the call was right,” said Elis, who believes the referee was right in awarding the victory to Conceição.
Having a good defense is great, but it's not enough when you're playing against good opposition and have quality officials officiating the game. Three lesser officials might have given Foster the call last Saturday, but these three good officials are not.
“His defense was spot on but he didn't get anything back. We didn't see the shutout, it was sporadic,” Ellis said, reacting to Foster being quoted after the game as saying he felt he could have shut out Conceição.
Foster's entire game consisted of him spurting, slacking and letting Conceição do all the hard work.
If Foster's trainer didn't inform him ahead of time about how serious his situation was, he needs to fire him and find someone who understands the dynamics of the fight and can tell his fighter the hard truth, even if he is mistakenly thinking he is winning by shutout.
It was a dirty match. One of the easiest matches of my life. We will do everything we can to make this right. But I tell you all that in the rematch he will not win 12. I promise you!!
— SH⚡️CK (@OshaquieFoster) July 7, 2024
