O’Shaquie Foster (21-2, 11 KOs) had to battle back hard on Saturday night to hold onto his WBC super featherweight title in rallying to stop challenger Eduardo ‘Rocky’ Hernandez (34-2, 31 KOs in the twelfth round at the Poliforum Benito Juarez in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
Rocky could have won the fight if he’d held Foster after being hurt by him in the twelfth round, but he chose to try and fight his way out of the round. Foster took advantage of Hernandez’s mistake by knocking him down twice and then forcing a stoppage. The time was at 2:38 of the 12th.
Foster made it very dull through the first six rounds by moving constantly, holding, and looking at the referee to be helped out whenever Hernandez would land a shot to the back of his head. Foster was turning his head towards Hernandez and creating his own problems trying to avoid getting hit.
In the ninth, Hernandez took the round-off, and that’s when Foster finally started fighting some with some aggression. Until then, Foster was moving, fighting with his back against the ropes, clinching & playing to the referee to protect him from Hernandez. It wasn’t really thrilling stuff, I must say.
Hernandez resumed dominating the contest in the tenth and getting the better of the action in the eleventh round when he was clipped by a left hand from Foster. Late in the round, Hernandez came back to stun Foster with a right hand when he got reckless while trying to finish him off.
The 25-year-old Hernandez was ahead on two of the judges’ scorecards, 80-72 and 79-73, at the time of the stoppage in round 12.
Foster expressed interest after the fight in facing IBF 130-lb champion Joe Cordina next in a unification. If you’re Cordina, you got to like that fight because Foster looked very average until catching Hernandez with a shot in the 11th.
This Foster-Hernandez event went under the radar of the boxing public, as they were focusing on the Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou card on ESPN+ PPV tonight, and many of them didn’t take notice of the DAZN card.
The Foster vs. Hernandez fight turned out to be a much better one than the Fury-Ngannou contest, and there’s really no comparison.
In the chief support bout, unbeaten heavyweight fringe contender Justis Huni (8-0, 4 KOs) defeated former cruiserweight Andrew Tabiti (20-2, 16 KOs) by a ten round unanimous decision.
The fight was closer than the judges’ scorecards handed down, but they at least got it right by choosing Huni. The judges scored it 100-90, 98-92, and 98-92. Huni, 24, beat Tabiti on volume punching by being the busier guy.