HOUSTON, Texas – “He’s continuously getting better – his IQ’s off the charts,” Bobby Benton, the trainer of O’Shaquie Foster, told BoxingScene on the eve of Foster’s latest fight. “He’s the smartest fighter I’ve ever worked with. I’ve worked with some great fighters, but the IQ on him – I’ve never had a guy that could explain exactly what he’s doing at every single moment and remember everything that goes on every second. He’s like a computer. He can remember every single thing that happened in a fight; even in a sparring session.
“Austin Trout was very smart. He was similar to Shaq back when he was in his prime – you could just leave him alone. He could figure stuff out; he had a great jab and his defence was sharp.
“A lot of people don’t [appreciate that about Foster], obviously. If you look at that first [Robson] Conceicao fight, that was an easy fight for us. How did they give it to the other guy? It’s disgusting. The only reason for that is they don’t appreciate it.
“The next fight, we made it a little closer ‘cause Shaq fought different – and that’s the thing. Shaq can make adjustments; he can fight different styles; he can do a lot of things. He can bang; he can box; he can stay away. He can do a lot of stuff.
“I don’t think he’s appreciated but I think he will be. He’ll get his due – it’s coming up. He’s definitely not appreciated, for as good as he is.”
Saturday’s fight – at the Fertitta Center in Foster’s hometown and so close to Benton’s Main Street Gym – perhaps goes some way to explaining the trainer’s frustration. Foster is fighting for the WBC junior-featherweight title for the sixth time and his opponent Raymond Ford, also a resident of Houston, is fighting for a 130lbs title for the first.
Ford, 27, sacrificed his WBA featherweight title on the occasion of his first defence. Foster, after victories over Rey Vargas, Eduardo Hernandez and Abraham Nova, lost it via a particularly controversial decision against Robson Conceicao and then won it back in an immediate rematch. He has also since so impressively defeated Stephen Fulton at lightweight, and yet he is far from a significant favourite for Saturday’s increasingly appealing date.
That they will headline a Matchroom promotion – Matchroom promote Ford, not Foster – is potentially contributing to Benton’s perception of a lack of appreciation for his fighter, and yet the respected trainer also knows that if he is to prove everything that he says he is then Foster will as convincingly defeat Ford as he has Vargas and Fulton and prove that he remains at his very peak.
“Every fight’s tough, but Shaq’s special,” said Benton. “I think Shaq controls the action right from the beginning of the fight to the end. Ray’s a good fighter. He’s tough, and I think that’s what’ll get him in trouble – he’s not a real IQ guy but he is ballsy, so I think he’ll press the action and Shaq can walk him into stuff.
“I don’t think anybody’s even close to Shaq, and Shaq’s gonna start showing that Saturday night. With the Fulton fight, Shaq showed how easy it was; how good he is. Nobody talks about it – he’s never gonna say anything – but we had some injuries and stuff going on and we still won every fight. But now he’s healthy – everything’s good – so it should be a fun night.
“Every fight he’s gonna learn something from and get better. We had enough time off where his body could recover, and he’s sharp; we started this camp like we finished the last one, and that was cool to see.
“With his IQ and his defence he doesn’t get hit a lot. Fulton; Rey Vargas; those two fights alone, Shaq may have got hit eight times.”
More than Ford, it is the judges on a Matchroom promotion that most trouble Benton. The 32-year-old Foster insists that he has forgiven his former promoters for the extent to which he believes that the Mexican Eduardo Hernandez was favoured on their promotion in Cancun when Foster ultimately stopped him in the final round.
For all that Matchroom have a history of focusing on promoting fighters in their hometowns it is Ford, not Foster, that they have high hopes for. Saturday’s fight venue represents the platform that they hope that he can inherit from Foster and build; the Top Rank-promoted Foster hasn’t fought in Houston since 2018.
“[I’m] always concerned,” Benton explained. “Look at the Rocky fight. The judge gave Rocky every round – even the round we almost knocked him out in the 11th round, when he turned his back. The fight should have been over – the judge gave him that round. So of course you’re concerned. We have to do our job and that’s it. Shaq’s prepared; we’re ready to go.
“It’s everything [that he has a chance to fight in Houston]. It shows who he is, and his character and that people wanna see him.
“[Ford’s] tough. He’s got some speed to him – he’s an athlete – but I don’t think he’s smart.
“He’s not smart. He doesn’t have a real good IQ, and he’s predictable. He does the same thing over and over.
“I don’t know what they’re trying to do, but sometimes you can hurt a guy by trying to change his style. Every fighter’s different. You gotta learn to train them to their abilities.”