By: Sean Crose
The 21-2 O’Shaquie Foster defended his WBC junior lightweight title Friday night at Madison Square Garden. His opponent in the ESPN broadcast main event was the 23-1 Abraham Nova. The bout was scheduled for 12 championship rounds. Foster’s previous fight was a 12th round TKO of Eduardo Hernandez while Nova had last seen action back in July when he knocked out Jonathan Romero in the 3’d.
Foster began pushing the action early in the first. Both men proceeded to fight behind their jabs. Foster was able to land in the final minute of the round. Nova landed well earlier on in the second. Each fighter, however remained cautious through the middle of the round. Nova was able to land again in the later portion of the chapter. Foster was able to fire off a combination near the midpoint of the third. Still, both fighters appeared to nearly be cautious to a fault.
The first part of the fourth had Foster throwing well and controlling the tempo of the fight. Novo, however, opened fire in the second half of the round, enabling himself – for the moment, at least – to turn the direction of the fight back in his favor. Things had sped up by the fifth, which each man fighting loose and firing at will. It was clear by the sixth round that Nova was throwing with bad intentions in the hopes that he could land clean with a missile.
Foster caught his man hard in the seventh, though the challenger took it well. Despite it’s relatively slow start, the fight had become an engaging, entertaining affair. Foster was able to unload early in the eighth. Nova was jabbing hard, always looking to land a power shot. With that being said, the fight was razor close. Both men fought on the inside in the ninth, as they had throughout the bout. Still, Foster was able to work in a sharp uppercut. He then landed an excellent straight shot later in the round.
Although both men had long since given up being tentative, they were still fighting intelligently in the tenth, focusing on not getting his as well as throwing and landing effectively. Foster took to holding early in the eleventh. Then he, too, took to throwing power shots he hoped would rock the rugged Nova. Yet Nova took to firing away himself. By round’s end, Nova had nearly turned the fight into a slobber knocker. The final round saw Nova crack Foster in the jaw. He looked, however, like he may be exhausted. Foster was then able to crack Nova with a sharp uppercut.
With less than twenty seconds left in the round, Foster sent Nova to the mat. Nova got up in time to beat the count, but it was clearly not the kind of round the challenger wanted. The judges ended up ruling in favor of Foster courtesy of a split decision.
