At the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, during the PBC event, WBC super featherweight world champion O’Shaquie Foster completely dominated his opponent Stephen Fulton, earning a thoroughly deserved and fairly easy points victory. These were the official judges’ scorecards which, despite being wide, actually appear generous to the loser compared to what we saw in the ring: 118–110, 119–109, and 117–111.
The fight had been preceded by a rather controversial incident. Despite coming up from the lower featherweight division, Fulton showed up at the weigh-in two pounds over the limit and therefore lost the chance to compete for the belt. Nothing shocking so far—an unfortunate but common situation in boxing.
What made this case different was a surprising (and highly questionable) move by Mauricio Sulaiman’s WBC, which put the Interim lightweight title on the line to guarantee Fulton a prize in case of victory. Many harshly criticized the decision, calling it an incentive to break the rules.
In any case, the challenger was punished inside the ring for his unprofessional conduct: throughout the twelve rounds, Fulton was completely out of sorts, suffering a genuine boxing lesson.
In the first three rounds, Foster, brilliantly exploiting his reach advantage, controlled the action with disarming ease, keeping a hesitant opponent at bay with his jab and his quick punches.
Both fighters made simultaneous tactical adjustments in the fourth round: Foster switched stance, placing his right foot forward in southpaw fashion, while Fulton raised his guard, giving the impression he wanted to take a more aggressive approach.
However, Cool Boy’s newfound intent faded very quickly, and Foster went back to controlling the match without any difficulty, maintaining the ideal distance to inflict damage while staying safe, and showcasing poise, speed, and timing worthy of a true champion.
Past the halfway point, the titleholder—realizing he had nothing to fear—further increased pressure and intensity, forcing Fulton to retreat and landing a significant number of blows to both body and head.
Foster kept displaying his full arsenal, switching stance two more times (orthodox from the ninth round and southpaw again in the final two), without ever interrupting his dominance. The tenth round was particularly rough for Fulton, but even in the so-called championship rounds, despite his massive lead, Foster never stopped punishing him.
To be honest, with quite a bit of generosity, I gave the challenger only the fourth round. The fight was one-sided from start to finish, and at no point did it feel like momentum could shift or that a plot twist was coming.
Fulton’s performance was so disappointing that it suggests something went wrong in his preparation—a suspicion reinforced by the missed weight. We expected him to struggle with Foster’s jab and natural super-featherweight physicality, as we wrote in our pre-fight analysis, but we certainly didn’t expect him to look so passive, resigned, and ineffective.
At this point, a return to the featherweight division would be advisable for Fulton, where he could take part in several interesting and competitive matchups. Foster, on the other hand, appears to have everything needed to pursue a unification. Difficult as it may be to make, a fight between him and the winner of the Mexican showdown between Eduardo Nunez and Emmanuel Navarrete—who will unify the IBF and WBO belts on February 28—would be truly spectacular.