O’Shaquie Foster punctuated his incredible comeback Saturday night from two defeats to nondescript opponents early in his career and a four-month stint in prison.
Foster defeated previously unbeaten two-division champion Rey Vargas by unanimous decision to win the WBC super featherweight title at Alamodome in San Antonio. The 29-year-old Foster won their 12-round “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event by big margins on the scorecards of judges Tim Cheatham (117-111), Alejandro Rochin (119-109) and David Sutherland (116-112).
Foster (20-2, 11 KOs), of Orange, Texas, entered the ring as the WBC’s number one contender in the 130-pound division. Mexico’s Vargas (36-1, 22 KOs), who won the WBC featherweight title from Mark Magsayo by split decision in his previous appearance, moved up from the 126-pound division to 130 to fight Foster for a title Shakur Stevenson surrendered at the scale September 22 in Newark, New Jersey.
Vargas still owns the WBC featherweight title and could move back down to the 126-pound limit to defend it in his next bout.
Foster has won 10 straight fights since he lost an eight-round split decision to Rolando Chinea in July 2016. Foster also prevented Vargas from becoming the 11th Mexican fighter to win world titles in three weight classes.
Foster fought exclusively from an orthodox stance, despite that Vargas talked often before their bout about Foster’s ability to fight well as a southpaw. The elusive Foster’s defense also prevented Vargas from landing flush punches with any regularity, even though the taller, rangier Vargas owned a four-inch height advantage.
Entering the 12th round, it was obvious that neither Foster nor Vargas would land the type of punch that would’ve prevented them from going the distance. Foster’s right hand, which landed with just under a minute to go in their fight, was the most eye-catching shot of that round.
A left hook by Foster made Vargas move away from him with just over two minutes to go in the 11th round. Foster’s defensive effectiveness also helped him win that round.
A sweeping left hook by Foster connected with just under 50 seconds on the clock in the 10th round.
Foster’s left hook connected a little less than 40 seconds into the 10th round. He also caught Vargas with a left hook in exchange with over 1:40 to go in the 10th round.
Foster’s short right hand landed with just over 50 seconds remaining in the ninth round. Vargas’ right hand in an exchange landed just before the midway mark of the ninth round.
Foster’s counter right hand caught Vargas with just under 1:20 to go in the eighth round.
A left hand by Foster caused Vargas to hold him barely a minute into the seventh round. Vargas grazed Foster with a left hook later in the seventh round, but it didn’t affect Foster.
Foster pressed the action again in the sixth round, when Vargas again had trouble catching him with clean punches.
Vargas backed Foster into the ropes, but Foster avoided his right hand with just under 30 seconds remaining in the fifth round. Foster landed back-to-back left hands as Vargas backed into the ropes a little less than a minute into the fifth round.
A counter right by Foster connected with 1:05 left in the fourth round. Foster also slipped many of Vargas’ punches in the fourth round as well.
Foster stung Vargas with a jab almost 1:20 into the third round. A cut opened over Vargas’ left eye later in the third round.
A right hand by Foster landed with just over 1:20 to go in the second round. He connected with another right hand less than 10 seconds later.
Vargas had difficulty dealing with Foster’s movement in the second round.
Foster threw jabs almost exclusively in the opening round, but he snuck in a right hand with just under 50 seconds on the clock and quickly got out of Vargas’ punching range.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.