O’Shaquie Foster has arrived in style.
The one-time U.S. amateur star, who battled back from two losses in the mid-2010s, defeated two-division champion Rey Vargas by a unanimous decision to win the vacant WBC 130-pound title Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
The official scores were 119-109, 117-111 and 116-112. Boxing Junkie also had it 117-111, nine rounds to three.
It seemed as if Foster (20-2, 11 KOs) wasn’t going to realize his potential when he lost decisions to Samuel Teah and Rolando China in a span of four fights in 2015 and 2016.
However, after the second setback, he regrouped. He made changes on his team, moved away from his hometown of Orange, Texas, and took some time off.
The result? He won nine consecutive fights to earn the opportunity he received against one of the more notable active champions Saturday in his home state.
Foster, quick and skillful, frustrated Vargas from the beginning by making it next to impossible for Vargas to hit him cleanly and picking his spots to attack and win rounds.
Vargas landed only 19% of his punches overall (compared to 23% for Foster), 12% of his jabs, according to CompuBox. Foster outlanded him 144-101 overall, 87-66 in power shots.
Vargas evidently sensed that he needed to get more done going into the second half of the bout, as he fought with more urgency and picked up his punch output in Rounds 6-9.
However, he was never able to penetrate Foster’s superb defense with any constancy. And, in the final three rounds, it was Foster who took the fight to a fading Vargas and got more work done.
He outlanded Vargas 20-5 in the 12th and final round.
“My coach just kept telling me, ‘Pick it up, be ready to go,'” Foster said. “We couldn’t get him out [but] I felt good in the later rounds so I just wanted to press him to make it wasn’t close.”
Some of the rounds were difficult to score, which raised the possibility of a close fight on the cards. However, no one complained when the official scores were announced.
Vargas said afterward that he thought the fight was closer than the judges saw it but never said he thought he should’ve been awarded the victory.
Thus, Foster, 29, can call himself a world champion more than a decade after he turned professional in 2012. It was clear afterward that it was worth the wait.
“Man, it feels great. This journey has been crazy,” Foster said with a smile he couldn’t wipe off his face.
How was he able to turn things around when things looked so bleak six, seven years ago.
“Dedication, hard work,” he said. “I got a great team around me. Getting away from the distractions, getting myself mentally and physical right. And now I’m on top. It’s crazy.”
Foster joins Shavkat Rakhimov (IBF) and Hector Luis Garcia (WBA) as junior lightweight beltholders. The WBO title is vacant.
The new champion said he’d like to unify titles but is open to fighting any of the top 130-pounders.
“I’m up for anybody,” he said. “I feel like my style .. I can adjust to anybody. I can beat anybody out there.”
Meanwhile, Vargas remains the WBC 126-pound titleholder. He’ll have to decide whether to move back down in weight or stay at 130, at which he was making his debut.
“This is another step in my life,” he said through a translator. “We might just go back to 126.”
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