O\u2019Shaquie Foster will defend his WBC super featherweight title against Raymond Ford in a DAZN main event on Saturday, May 30, from Houston, after what quickly became a pretty heated build between the two.<\/p>\n
So who\u2019s got the edge going into what many feel looks like something of a pick\u2019em on paper?<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shaquie Foster\u2019s recent form<\/p>\n
Foster (24-3, 12 KO) has had a fine career, rescued after a pair of mild upset losses on ShoBox in 2015-16, after which he dialed it back, put in the work, and emerged a better fighter, everything he was meant to be, and is now a two-time world champion at 130 lbs.<\/p>\n
Foster, 32, also picked up a complete nonsense interim lightweight title last time out, which the WBC created out of thin air as a way of excusing Stephen Fulton not making weight in December, for what was meant to be a title defense by Foster.<\/p>\n
However you slice that belt Foster immediately discarded, though, he looked good, and pretty well owned the ring against Fulton, a two-division champ. Outside of those losses a decade ago, Foster has been in terrific form for years now. He did lose a split decision to Robson Conceicao in 2024, but reversed that in the rematch four months later.<\/p>\n
All in all, Foster\u2019s won 14 of 15 over the last 10 years and made himself a top name at 130 for the last four years, when he went to Dubai and beat Muhammad Yaqubov, then took the WBC title by beating Rey Vargas in 2023, something seen as a bit of an upset among many at the time. He\u2019s just fought, been consistent, and won for quite a long time now.<\/p>\n
Raymond Ford\u2019s recent form<\/p>\n
Ford (18-1-1, 8 KO) won a world title at featherweight in 2024, then lost it three months later. He\u2019s the sort of guy whose skills are constantly lauded by his promoter or TV commentators, but when you really look at the fight-by-fight results, you see clear inconsistency.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, Ford is really good. Sometimes, he struggles, and this goes back years. The first sign for me came in 2021, when he went to a draw with Aaron Perez. There was, at that moment, some suspicion that maybe Perez was simply better than advertised. Then Perez lost two of his next three, and the losses came to club-level fighters. He hasn\u2019t fought since 2024.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Ford struggled to a decision win over Edward Vazquez, who actually was better than he was \u201csupposed to be,\u201d even if he can also be inconsistent. But Ford went on a nice run after that, and beat Otabek Kholmatov in a tough fight in early 2024, winning the WBA featherweight title, which he lost to Nick Ball in another tough one three months later, in a fight that frankly Ford probably should have passed on. Not only did he likely turn around too fast to face someone like Ball, but he admitted he was struggling with the weight, and went to 130 after.<\/p>\n
The upside of some of Ford\u2019s harder evenings is that he\u2019s shown he\u2019ll hang around and scrap when it doesn\u2019t all go his way. There\u2019s genuine value in that. At 130, he had two dominant wins over Orlando Gonzalez and Thomas Mattice, but last August in his most recent fight, Abraham Nova gave him a pretty decent test. Yet again, Ford got through it, and he won.<\/p>\n
Who will win Foster vs Ford?<\/p>\n
One school of thought is that Ford at his absolute best is better than Foster at his absolute best, but I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n
The true measure of either man\u2019s best is not what the score cards read in matchups that turned out to be one-sided or easy. It comes down more to what they\u2019ve done when the going has gotten tough. Both have shown resilience, which is admirable and makes the fight even harder to predict.<\/p>\n
Foster bounced back from the type of defeats that have derailed plenty of young careers, especially those with any level of hype behind them. Ford has cast aside doubts after several fights, including defeat, and come back to win and look better. Yeah, Abraham Nova gave him problems last time out; Nova\u2019s a thoroughly decent fighter who can be a little tricky, it\u2019s fair to give him that credit, and to think Ford beating him actually does prove something, even if it wasn\u2019t easy. Nova wasn\u2019t super easy for Foster back in 2024, either.<\/p>\n
The most I\u2019ve been impressed with Ford was against Kholmatek, who is a quality fighter. I think Ford even got stung a little in that fight and came through it. The most I\u2019ve been impressed with Foster was him rallying from behind on the cards to stop Eduardo \u201cRocky\u201d Hernandez in 2023. For me, that really solidified him after the strong win over Rey Vargas.<\/p>\n
In short, I agree with the general belief that this is a tough fight to pick. But I\u2019ve got a clear if not overwhelming favorite based on one feeling in particular, which is that Foster\u2019s superior length could give him a real edge here. Both of these guys are far more technician than brawler, they like to work outside and dictate the real estate of a fight. Foster beat Fulton handily doing that. I think Ford could have more success than a seemingly unmotivated Stephen Fulton, mind you, but it will still be hard. Foster is taller and longer. If the two both fight to their normal style, it\u2019s going to be tough for Ford to get into the rhythm he wants, to really \u201cflow\u201d in the fight and get into that groove where he can be really effective. Foster has the tools and the skills to disrupt all of that.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, I\u2019m actually a bit wary about Foster fighting this one at home in Houston. That seems like an advantage, and certainly can be, but sometimes we see fighters get a bit overwhelmed by the pressures of fighting in their hometown. Foster hasn\u2019t fought in Houston since a low-level fight in 2018; this will be his first big fight in the city. There absolutely can be a downside to trying to \u201cshow out\u201d at home, we\u2019ve seen it happen to fighters many times.<\/p>\n
Still, I\u2019m going with O\u2019Shaquie to retain, because that\u2019s more speculation than what makes me confident in his chances. I think that right now, he\u2019s the better, more complete fighter. Not by miles, but by enough.<\/p>\n
Prediction: O\u2019Shaquie Foster by decision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"O\u2019Shaquie Foster will defend his WBC super featherweight title against Raymond Ford in a DAZN main event on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,217149,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-702759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-predictions","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}