O’Shaquie Foster, still chasing Shakur Stevenson, calls for P4P consideration

O’Shaquie Foster has become one of the best fighters in the world and feels like he must be treated as such.

The junior lightweight Texan is on a hot streak, having defeated Robson Conceicao, Stephen Fulton and Raymond Ford in his last three and he holds the WBC’s belt.

More than that, though, he contends he should have hit all the pound-for-pound lists by now. 

“I should be top 10,” the 32-year-old told BoxingScene. “I should be top 10 for sure. If you look at my last five, six fights and you look at any of these other guys that’s top 10, you can see my resume, it’s just crazy. From the different caliber fighters, I went from Rey Vargas, which was a six-foot guy, undefeated, two-division champion. I beat him. Then I went to Rocky [Eduardo Hernandez], small, power puncher, straight forward. I knocked him out. [Abraham] Nova, [Robson] Conceicao, I was robbed the first fight [won the rematch]. Then Stephen Fulton and then Ray Ford. That resume is just kind of crazy to me. And none of them guys fight the same. They all got different styles, different attributes. So, I definitely feel like I’m top 10.

“Least you can do is eight, nine or 10. You know what I mean? It gotta be somewhere in there because ain’t nobody doing what I’m doing. And I hope they paying attention to it and it ain’t just a popularity contest.” 

The Ford victory came on May 30 in Houston.

In the aftermath, talk quickly turned to a possible fight with Shakur Stevenson, his former Top Rank stablemate who is 25-0 (11 KOs) but who has not boxed since a January win over Teofimo Lopez.

The pair have gone back and forth recently, and it is the fight that Foster wants above any other.

“Oh yeah, for sure,” he said. “We gotta fight. There’s no other way around it. The world wants to see it now and me and him, we got animosity, so we might as well just let it carry over and get it out of the way.

“We trying to make it happen and see what he talking about. We’re going to see if he hold up to his word, man. I need everybody to make him stand on that with him though.

“Y’all heard what he said. If I give his little man [Ray Ford] a chance, an opportunity and I did, you know what I mean? So now he got to hold up his word.”

They have sparred a few times previously, and those rounds have given Foster confidence.  

“Every session, I enjoyed,” Foster recalled. “A few sessions went bad for him, but it was great work. It was high level work, man. But I just believe in myself. I know what I can do in that ring. Like I said, he disrespected me. So now it’s time to show the world we got to fight.” 

Foster has become one of Top Rank’s stars. He is now 25-3 (12 KOs), having refused to get derailed by two early-career eight-round losses and the Conceicao decision in their first fight.

He has also come through several stays in prison but is now repaying the faith Top Rank has shown in him.

“Top Rank, they understand that I’m one of the rare guys that I don’t mind fighting anybody,” Foster said. “And that I can go across the street or I can go to these other networks and I can come back with the ‘W’ and make us look good. They’ve done right by me, especially when we didn’t have a TV deal. So I appreciate them for sure.”

Foster’s life has improved with each rung he’s climbed on the boxing ladder. 

Nothing has been able to derail him, even though he sees why big-name athletes and celebrities can get drawn back to the streets. 

“Oh yeah. Easy, easy, easy. And it’s them temptations, especially when you in boxing or certain fields, if you’re not at the top or you’re not making real money, then the streets definitely can try to call you back or you try to go make some quick money or something,” he said.

“So definitely they can pull you right back in.”

With where he is now, however, he is beyond the point of no return where, when he looks back on his hell-raising past in gangs, he doesn’t see the same man.

“I thank God every day cause I ain’t gonna lie, sometimes I can’t believe it,” Foster said.

“How far we came, how different my circumstances is now, just with everything. It’s just crazy.”