LOS ANGELES – Respect and legacy are the competing motivations for fellow titleholders O’Shaquie Foster and Stephen Fulton as they head to their October 25 junior lightweight title fight in Las Vegas.
Houston’s Foster, 23-3 (12 KOs), will have been out of the ring for nearly a year when he returns to fight Philadelphia’s Fulton, 23-1 (8 KOs). As Top Rank, Foster’s promoter, navigates its existence without a current television deal, the fighter is effectively on loan to Premier Boxing Champions to fight on its pay-per-view platforms Prime Video and PPV.COM.
And Foster finds himself bothered by the move of Fulton, 31, who went directly from his February featherweight title victory over Brandon Figueroa to the 130lbs WBC title shot against Foster.
“Most definitely, I’m insulted by a lot of stuff – I’m seeing the fans talking, seeing the disrespect,” Foster told PPV.COM during backstage interviews at Wednesday’s news conference at The Mayan theater. “He’s going to pay for it.”
Fulton argues that he isn’t pursuing a third division title as a slight to Foster. Rather, it’s who he is.
It was Fulton back in 2021 who had first won his 122lbs belt against Angelo Leo and immediately went right after then-WBC belt holder Figueroa, telling a reporter back then that he believed all champions should feel an obligation to pursue undisputed status – for both personal glory and a means to combat the sanctioning-body silliness of as many as four titlists in one division.
That’s exactly what Fulton did, defeating Figueroa and Daniel Roman before seeing his plan sour in 2023 by an eighth-round TKO loss to the sport’s unbeaten pound-for-pound king, four-division champion Naoya Inoue.
That sole defeat has proven valuable, as Fulton said he has gained the confidence to know he will never fight a more skilled opponent.
When told earlier this year of the possibility of fighting Foster, he jumped at it.
“I love challenging myself. Any champion that has a belt should want that,” he said during the PPV.COM sessions. “Champions should fight champions.”
Beyond that, winning would make Fulton a three-division champion, a position that appeals to International Boxing Hall of Fame voters.
“I didn’t look at it that way, but now that you say it, it’s like, ‘Yeah, three is a Hall of Fame number,’” he said.
In Foster, Fulton will meet a refreshed, inspired opponent who said he needed the extensive time off to let a left arm injury heal after gaining revenge over Brazil’s Robson Conceicao following a disputed loss by decision earlier in 2024.
“I can fight through anything,” Foster said when asked what he proved to himself by avenging the Conceicao loss. “My whole left arm was injured last fight, but I didn’t care – I was going to do whatever it took to get my belt back.
“The break was needed. I had fought four times in a year. I was getting my body back to being right. Now, this is my most important fight. I’ve got a guy in front of me with a big name. He’s a multi-division champion. And I feel disrespected. I’m ready to go.”
Fighting for his opponent’s promotion, Premier Boxing Champions, might have him feeling like a visiting football team, but Foster said he’s equipped to handle the situation.
It will prompt Foster into “being ferocious” on fight night, he said. “I’ve been laid back a little too much in my last three fights.
“In no fight ever have I felt like the underdog. I’m the champion. They might not want to make it look like that, but I’m going to show them you don’t ever disrespect the champion, because it will end bad.”
Foster has ambitions of his own to move up in weight and pursue champions, starting with WBC lightweight belt holder Shakur Stevenson, Lamont Roach Jnr and/or WBA lightweight titlist Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
“Any one of those guys,” Foster said.
Before that, he has to get past Fulton, who has taken to embracing a nothing-to-lose mindset that he credits for defeating Figueroa for the second time.
“I didn’t care what [Figueroa] had to offer,”Fulton said. “I just wanted my belt in a second division. I was going to get in there and fight, win or lose.”
In that bout, Fulton wore $40,000 cut-off jean shorts (“jorts”) and Timberland-resembling fight boots (“Timbs”) to catch the audience’s attention and expand his marketability.
He said he plans to put together a unique outfit again for the Foster fight.
“I’ll have something,” he said. “It has to come natural and not be forced – something I’d wear around and out.”
Beyond tending to himself, Fulton said he hasn’t “really tuned into” what Foster will bring to the bout, admitting he knows the Texan has an effective right hand.
Rather than getting bogged down in life’s specific details, Fulton said he has adopted a new mindset that keeps him positive and confident.
“If you wake up and tell yourself you’re going to have a good day, you will,” he said.
That might be a California thing to say, but his training and attitude remains pure Philly, where he trains under “Bozy” Ennis, the father-trainer of unbeaten 154lbs contender and former welterweight titleholder Jaron “Boots” Ennis.
“Watching Boots’ work ethic, he’s a freak of nature. He continues to want to grow and push himself,” Fulton said. “Seeing that from someone so good, it only makes me want to do the same thing.”
It has brought Fulton to another champion, into the card’s co-main event, with perhaps the pending opportunity to headline his own pay-per-view next year.
“It’d be another milestone, another step in the legacy of my career,”
Fulton said. “One step at a time.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
