O’Shaquie Foster’s manager, Keith Mills, has reacted to his fighter’s controversial defeat to Robson Conceicao.
Foster lost a split decision, in a failed defense of his WBC Super Featherweight Title. He had defended the belt successfully on two occasions before coming up short on the scorecards: Conceicao had the following scores: 116-112, 115-113, while Foster had 116-112.
Conceicao was trying to press the action. However, Foster had a strong defense, countering his opponent at will. The CompuBox numbers backed that up. Foster threw more than ten punches in the fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth rounds. In contrast, Conceicao only threw more than ten punches in two rounds: rounds four and 11. Foster also landed a quarter of his punches, but Conceicao only managed to do 10 percent. Once the scorecards were read, Foster was aggrieved. Meanwhile, Conceicao was confident he had done enough to win.
Foster vs. Conceicao
“I thought it was shutout. I don’t know. [And] I don’t know, man. I thought it was easy. [And] I thought it was an easy fight. I didn’t get touched except with a headbutt. I don’t know, man. I’ll be back. But I want the rematch. They stole this from me. They stole this fight from me. I just wanted to show the world I could bang it out, and if I want to, I don’t have to get touched. I guess it wasn’t good enough for the judges,” Foster said
“This is for my daughter. I promised this to my daughter, and I was able to fulfill that promise. I’m the champion of the world. I do think I won the fight. I landed way more. He didn’t come to fight. He was running and running. I was the winner,” Conceicao
Foster’s manager has now spoken out. He called out the quality of the judging. Judge Tony Lundy was singled out for having a lack of experience. Lundy only judged one title fight before this, showing a potential lack of experience. He oversaw Amanda Serrano’s victory over Calista Silgado in a WBO Featherweight Title bout.
Foster’s Manager
However, given that Serrano had stopped her opponent in the first round, the judges were not required to do much. Foster is also signed with Top Rank and fighting on their show, making the decision more difficult to accept. Foster has stated that he wants the rematch. But it has tarnished his record, as he suffered his third career loss. His manager is still struggling to process that loss.
“Before signing with Top Rank, we were free agents and had to knock people out to retain our title. We signed with Top Rank so that ‘Shock’ can just focus on his job of boxing and not have to worry about this exact thing. When I heard the first score they announced, 116-112 Robson – OK, I learned to stay cool in that moment.
“I was positive that the next two scores would be a landslide for Shock, because sometimes in boxing the first judge is a shocker. But then the next two are what you come to expect. We thought we were going to walk away with an easy majority decision. Where do you find four rounds to give to Robson,” stated
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