Houston Fight Week — The Champion Comes Home
Right then — for the first time in his career O'Shaquie Foster is headlining a world title fight at home. Saturday May 30 at the Fertitta Center on the University of Houston campus, the WBC super featherweight belt is on the line and the Orange Texas native gets to defend it five minutes from the gym he has trained in for over a decade. DAZN have the global rights. The card is signed off as the Matchroom show of the month and Eddie Hearn has been on social all week selling it like a man who knows he has a sleeper main event.
Foster — twenty four wins, three losses, twelve by knockout — is making his second defence of this belt since he reclaimed it. The last outing was the December win over Stephen Fulton in San Antonio, the clean and clinical shut-out that put everyone back on notice. That was the fight that announced him. This is the fight that confirms him.
Ray Ford — The Live Body Foster Has Not Faced In A Year
Make no mistake — Raymond Ford is the live body. Eighteen wins, one loss, one draw, the former WBA featherweight champion who has gone three-from-three at 130 since the move up and the man The Ring have at number six in the world. He is twenty seven, he is southpaw, he is awkward, he is from Camden New Jersey and he punches harder than people give him credit for.
The slip move he showed in the Orlando Gonzalez fight was elite level. He moves his head like a man who has been doing it on instinct since he was twelve, which is roughly the truth. The Mattice fight told us he could break a body down across twelve. The Nova win told us he could hurt the new wave 130 pounders. Now we find out whether he can do it to a proper champion in his back yard.
The Tactical Read
Let's not beat around the bush — this is a stylistic puzzle for Foster. The champion likes to box on the back foot, set the range with the long jab, time the counter. That worked against Fulton because Fulton is straight up and down and reads the same. Ford is not. Ford is southpaw, Ford is unpredictable, Ford makes you reset. The first three rounds will tell us everything — can O'Shaquie find the range against the southpaw movement, or does Ray make him miss enough to inherit the centre?
The body work is where this gets decided. Both lads are economical, both have decent gas, neither has been stopped at world level. We are in for twelve rounds and a tight scorecard.
The Underbidders And The Card
The Matchroom undercard has been built smart — Houston local talent on the prelims, plenty of action, plenty of body shots. It is a tighter card than the recent Saudi nights but it is a proper fight-fan card. Doors open at 5pm Central, ringwalks for the main expected just after 11pm Eastern. Anyone who can find DAZN should be on it. Anyone who is in Houston and has not got a ticket needs to ring the box office now — this is the kind of small hall world title night you tell your kids about.
Prediction Watch
I make it O'Shaquie Foster by close decision over twelve, 116-112 type score. Hometown matters, the cleaner work matters, the ring smarts matter. But Ford takes three rounds and bothers him to the wire. If anyone steals it, it is the southpaw from Camden. Either way it is a proper Saturday night fight and exactly the type of card that should be on free-to-air British television. The next time someone tells you boxing is dead, point them at the Fertitta Center.