O’Shaquie Foster Feels He Is Equipped To Overcome WBC Champ Rey Vargas
O’Shaquie Foster (20-2, 11 KOs) is just days away from his February 11 battle against 126-pound WBC champion Rey Vargas (36-0, 22 KOs) for the vacant WBC junior lightweight title. Coming into the fight, Foster feels he has the advantage over Vargas, from a physical standpoint.
Foster is the WBC mandatory challenger at 130. During an interview on the PBC Podcast, Foster said training camp has been outstanding. Vargas is the more experienced fighter and a two-division world champion. However, that doesn’t dampen Foster’s confident one bit.
“I definitely feel like I have the speed, the strength, the IQ advantage over him.”
OVERCOMING TRIAL AND TRIBULATIONS
There was a time when it appeared that Foster would never reach this point. After suffering decision losses to Samuel Teah in November 2015 and Rolando Chinea in July 2016, he was at a crossroads in his career. But the 29-year-old resident of Houston, Texas was able to turn things around and has not lost since those defeats. He said the key was rededicating himself and finding a new team that believed in him.
The hard work and perseverance have paid off. Foster earned this title fight opportunity by scoring a unanimous decision victory over Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov in a WBC 130-pound title eliminator in March 2022. In his upcoming bout against Vargas, Foster says he feels no pressure. He’s made sacrifices in and out of the gym and believes he will leave the ring as the new WBC junior lightweight champion.
“I feel like physically, mentally, I’m at the right point, I’m ready to go. I feel like it’s the right time . . . I put in the work, the training, and everything. I just got to go in there and be myself. As long as I go in there and do what I know I can do, it should be a great night for me.”
With a win, Foster would become a significant player and put himself in a position for bigger fights at junior lightweight. The Texan says he’s ready for the moment.
