Social media buzzed after a championship fight on Saturday night and it was not the fight this writer expected to see. It happened on the ESPN telecast headlined by Stevenson-Harutyunyan. O’Shaquie Foster was defending his WBC 130-pound title against Brazil's Robson Conceição. As most of you already know, Conceição won a disputed split decision. Tony Lundy and Paul Wallace scored it 116-112 and 115-113 respectively for Conceição. New York's Ron McNair hadd it 116-112 for Foster but was overruled. Social media posts would have one believe there was a conspiracy and the usual suspects discussed how judging warrants evaluation. Because I missed the fight, I decided to see what the buzz was about and how bad of a verdict this fight netted. Here is my round-by-round analysis of the fight between Conceição and Foster:
Round 1: The fight started with both fighters throwing jabs and going through the usual feeling-out process for the first minute. As the round progressed it was easy to see each fighter’s role and strategy as Foster boxed and Conceição used pressure to come in. Foster had more success putting his punches together and landed a nice jab-hook towards the end of the round. Boxingtalk score: Foster, 10-9.
Round 2: Foster continues to box and use good defense to avoid punches from Conceição. In the middle of the round Conceição throws some meaningful right hands, however, most of them are blocked by Foster. Conceição was more aggressive, but Foster still landed more punches and avoided the aggression of Conceição. Boxingtalk score: Foster, 10-9.
Round 3: Conceição continues to open up and throw punches. Foster avoided most of these punches with good movement, but he lacked offense. Conceição kept moving forward and applied pressure and aggression due to the lack of offense from Foster. Boxingtalk score: Foster, 10-9.
Round 4: Foster continues to make Conceição miss, but hardly making him pay. Conceição is the busier fighter. Conceição landed a few of his straight rights in this round. Foster is one or two punches at a time and mostly jabs. Boxingtalk score: Conceição, 10-9.
Round 5: Conceição comes out swinging putting combinations together, but only a few punches are getting through. There is a notable dynamic, while Foster is avoiding most of what is coming towards him, the way his hair moves around while he is on the defensive his head can create a visual that punches might be landing. One can see this more as Conceição lets his hands go. Around the halfway mark of the round Foster splits the guard of Conceição with a solid uppercut. Foster opens up with a few combinations and the output of Conceição goes down. The crowd is growing restless though as they wanted more action. Boxingtalk score: Foster, 10-9.
Round 6: Foster comes out firing this round and mixing his offense with nice combinations. Conceição is throwing much fewer punches this round. Jab-hook combinations and right-hand leads are landing for Foster when he throws them. Conceição tries to get busier towards the last 30 seconds, but it is short-lived as Foster boxes smart and lands his combinations. Boxingtalk score: Foster, 10-9.
Round 7: Both fighters come out throwing combinations, but it is Foster landing and Conceição hitting air. Foster is bothered by a right he threw and it has a brief appearance that he may have hurt his hand, but he continues to throw it. Conceição is throwing more than last round, but having little success. Boxingtalk score: Foster, 10-9.
Round 8: The round starts as a continuation of the last two with Foster boxing smart and landing when he decides to fire. Conceição is ineffective with most of his combinations, but he is the busier of the two fighters. In the last minute of the round Conceição lands a couple of straight right hands that may have earned him the round. Boxingtalk score: Conceição, 10-9.
Round 9: Foster seemed to take this round off from being offensive as he smiled while making Conceição miss. To his credit, Conceição stayed busy even though he did not land many of the punches he threw. Most of Foster’s offense are jabs that are landing, but hardly effective as well. The most exciting point of the round was a headbutt in the first 30 seconds of the round that caused a little bleeding for both fighters. Nevertheless, it was nothing serious. Boxingtalk score: Conceição, 10-9.
Round 10: Conceição started out throwing a lot of punches, although nothing got through the defense of Foster. In the second minute of the round Foster starts landing a few combinations between the misses of Foster. Conceição stays busy and gets through with a punch here and there. Boxingtalk score: Foster, 10-9.
Round 11: Championship rounds starting. Conceição continues coming forward throwing in this round and still missing the mark. However, there was little offense coming back from Foster. Around the middle and end of the round Foster opened up with a combination here and there, but not much landing for him either. Boxingtalk score: Conceição, 10-9.
Round 12: Conceição came out throwing, but as was the case in every other round, he was not successful in hitting anything but the air or gloves of Foster. Foster is making the business of not getting hit look easy, but he rarely is firing back. Boxingtalk score: Conceição, 10-9.
Final analysis: I scored it 115-113, seven rounds to five for Foster. In my opinion, McNair had the result right while Lundy was off by three rounds and Wallace by two. One fact can be concluded. Foster is the more skilled fighter with a seemingly higher boxing IQ. Everything Foster did in the ring was superior to Conceição. Nevertheless, Foster fought without urgency, aggression, or offense. Foster fought like this was a sparring exercise on defense. While he was hardly touched in the fight, for the final 4 rounds the commentators continually called for him to take a chance and do something to impress the viewers. Let’s also not pretend that Foster far and away out-landed Conceição, Foster only landed 3-5 punches per round more and most of those punches were jabs. Conceição had one thing going for him..aggression. This might not have been effective as far as punches were not landed, however, it might be the reason why Foster was so reluctant to counter. The final score on this analysis concludes O’Shaquie Foster lost a bad decision…however, the way he chose to fight (or lack there of) gave the judges a reason to give the decision to Conceição.
