Fighter Of The Week 2/6-2/12
Hollywood producers and scriptwriters couldn't come up with a better story than the real-life journey of this week's Fighter of the Week. The O'shaquie Foster story has now hit a climax. The 29-year-old from Orange, Texas, known as "Ice Water" is now the WBC Super Featherweight world champion. A journey that includes being an all-world prospect to two losses in eight months, to a prison sentence to a split with his promoter that led to long layoffs just when it looked like he was getting back, to here. Winning a world title in his home state at The Alamodome. It's been a crazy story that Foster put a major exclamation point at the end of his journey Saturday night. He pitched a near-perfect game in absolutely dissecting former two-division world champion Rey Vargas, of Mexico, over 12 one-sided rounds. To walk off with a lopsided unanimous decision victory, his first-ever world title, and is currently the leader in the clubhouse for "Performance of the Year" and moved his record to 20-2 (11) and scored his 10th consecutive victory from what appeared to be a career crippling loss on ShoBox to Rolando Chinea back in 2016.
"Ice Water" dominated from start to finish. Foster boxed brilliantly throughout the 12-round affair. Dominating the opening with just a jab. Dictating the pace and getting in position to land while avoiding Vargas's heavy artillery. The opening few rounds were the same story. Foster, the quicker, sharper fighter would land in short combinations, and Vargas would swing at air. Controlling the action early, the Texan began getting a bit more aggressive and started firing with right hands that started landing with laser-like precision, one in particular, staggered the former world champ at the end of the second round. Hitting and not getting hit, Foster remained in control throughout most of the middle rounds. However, Vargas began battling back and had his best moment in the ninth with a straight right that landed about midway through the round. The moment was short-lived as Ice Water seized control of the fight again, scoring with left hooks in the final minute of the 10th that completely halted the temporary momentum put together by Vargas. Foster remained in control and the Hollywood script was completed. Foster Captured the vacant WBC title and responded by saying, “Man, it feels great. Man, this journey been crazy.” The final tallies were 119-109,117-111, and 116-112, all for the East Texan.
Foster is the best 130-pounder in the world. However, before he can even begin to think about unification, he is going to have to take at least one, if not two mandatories, according to WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman. His first mandatory will be against Mexican contender Eduardo "Rocky" Hernandez of Mexico City. A fighter that is largely overlooked because he was destroyed by Roger Gutierrez in just one round. However, that was back in 2019 when Hernandez was just 22 years old. He has reestablished himself and won five straight, including stopping Jorge Castaneda of Laredo. Castaneda was a surging prospect, who had pulled off multiple upsets at the time. Foster may have to take another mandatory following that. He will have to get past all of that before he can think about a unification with Hector Garcia or Emmanuel Navarette or a bout with Valdez or anything like that. However, given Foster's journey, none of that is likely to deter the newly crowned WBC champion.
