Boxing
O’Shaquie Foster’s plan: Defeat 'son' Ray Ford to land fight with 'father' Shakur Stevenson
Foster vs. Ford on DAZN subscription - Saturday
O’Shaquie Foster exhausted his options trying to unify titles at super featherweight as any thoughts of battling IBF/WBO world champion Emanuel Navarrete or WBA Anthony Cacace met screeching dead ends.
So, Foster looked to his next best option — Ray Ford. Foster puts his WBC super featherweight world title on the line against Ford at the Fertitta Center in Houston, Texas, and exclusively live worldwide on DAZN, on Saturday night.
Foster’s plan is simple — convincingly tame ‘Savage’ Ford to force the hand of his stablemate, Shakur Stevenson, into a mega fight.
“I feel like I put myself in the best position to make that happen and that’s by fighting his son May 30,” Foster told DAZN News about using Ford to get to Stevenson.
“Once I handle my business there, it’s going to be natural that the fans and the world is going to look to him and be like ‘Alright, what you doing next? What you got going? Are you going to send him a contract?’”
Foster & Ford Prepare for War in Texas
Foster has been relentlessly referring to Stevenson and Ford as “father” and “son” for the way that he believes the latter tries to emulate the former — both New Jersey natives.
Foster even believes Stevenson might have led Ford to oppose him as a direct result from the fallout of his former friendship with the undefeated WBO super lightweight titleholder.
In some ways, Foster can relate to Ford’s position. Just like Ford and Stevenson are sparring partners, making each other better, Foster and Stevenson once subscribed to iron sharpens iron as former stablemates themselves.
Foster says he and Stevenson began travelling to spar everybody else at first.
“He’s seen me work with guys like Gary Russell and all them guys,” Foster says, “and I’ve seen him work with guys.”
He adds: “We were both handling our business when it came to go sparring these guys.”
That would eventually segue to Foster and Stevenson getting work in as sparring mates — something that began in 2020, according to Foster.
“We were sparring every day,” Foster affirms about the sessions that he says continued over the next couple of years as well. “We were meeting every day at Main Street Gym.”
During this time period, Foster got an up, close and personal experience against Stevenson’s elusive defensive prowess.
But the WBC super featherweight titleholder believes if the two are to eventually clash that his own offense will spell the difference.
“If we’re going to be across from each other and we both got great defense, now it’s going to come down to the other stuff,” Foster vows.
“And I got more in my arsenal than him when it comes to offense-wise, so that’s why I know I can beat him. And he knows that.”
All being said, ‘Ice Water’ insists he is locked in on Ford first, knowing he needs to soundly defeat him to make the potential fight with Stevenson grow with their own groundswell.
The buildup between Foster and Ford has been heated with the champ shoving the challenger during their first fight week faceoff Tuesday before Ford returned the favor to end Thursday’s press conference.
Foster vows that Ford is in for a “rude awakening" in a performance that's more of a boom than blip on Stevenson's radar.
Analysis: Potential Stevenson vs. Foster fight
DAZN News’ Mark Lelinwalla
There is no doubt that a Stevenson-Foster bout would thrill with an entertaining buildup that could lead into a high-speed chess matchup.
That Foster defeated Stephen Fulton so handily in December was an eye opener, though Stevenson would mark a significantly steeper challenge.
Still, Ford, a former featherweight world champion, is no pushover at all and has a sharp enough skillset to outpoint Foster, making this weekend all the more intriguing.
Watch Fury vs. Hall exclusively on DAZN
'The Beauty' Tommy Fury fights the 'The Beast' Eddie Hall on a great Misfits fight night on Saturday, June 23, exclusively live on DAZN. Buy as a one-off PPV or included, along with Zayas vs. Ennis (June 27), Joshua vs. Prenga (July 25) and Canelo vs. M'billi (Sept 12) PPVs, with a DAZN Ultimate Tier subscription.
