Notebook: Conceicao-Foster II at hand 4 months after controversy
WBC 130 title on line again; Olivieri succeeds retiring Valcarcel as WBO president; Fernando Martinez vacates 115 belt; Quick hits; Show & tell
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Four months ago O’Shaquie Foster stood in the ring in Newark, New Jersey, dumbfounded that he had lost a split decision and the WBC junior lightweight title to Robson Conceicao.
After the fight ended Foster told his coaches he thought he had made it look easy, so he was not the only one shocked by the result on July 6. Many believed it should have been a clear, if not one-sided, decision in Foster’s favor. However, two judges had Conceicao winning, 116-112 and 115-113, and one judge had it 116-112 for Foster.
So, Conceicao was awarded the green and gold belt, but the WBC ordered an immediate rematch of the controversial decision, and that is what will take place in the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card on Saturday (ESPN+, 5:50 p.m. ET, with the co-feature at approximately 10 p.m. ET) at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.
Clearly, there is unfinished business between them.
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The fight in July had little drama or action and perhaps the difference between the judges was that while Conceicao threw many more punches than Foster, he landed far fewer, if you examine the CompuBox statistics, which judges do not have access to during the bout.
Foster (22-3, 12 KOs), 31, of Houston, who was dethroned his third defense, knows that he needs to adjust his style at least a little to get the result he believes he deserved the first time around.
“I’ve just been grinding, but I hope he knows the name of the game is to hit and not get hit,” Foster said. “That’s the name of the game. I’ve been in good spirits. I’m ready. I ain’t really trying to dwell on the judges (from the July fight).
“I wish them the best, but this fight I plan on coming in and dominating to the best of my ability. We plan on doing stuff different, and we plan on stepping to him. I hope he knows that.”
It took Conceicao four attempts to finally claim the elusive world title, having lost a disputed decision to Oscar Valdez for the WBC title in 2021, a lopsided decision to Shakur Stevenson for the vacant WBC and WBO belts stripped from Stevenson for being overweight in 2022, and a majority draw challenging Emanuel Navarrete for his WBO title in an outstanding slugfest last November.
After all that work, Conceicao believes he rightfully defeated Foster in July and has no plans to allow him to take what he worked so hard to win.
“This fight is personal for me because I feel that a champion is a fighter who goes out there and doesn’t run around, who looks for the fight, who tries to win, and doesn’t just throw one or two punches and then moves away,” Conceicao said through an interpreter. “This has happened to me before, in fact, with Oscar Valdez and Emanuel Navarrete. I didn’t have the luck those nights, but I always go in there with the desire to fight. So, he’s going to have to fight for a second time against me as a result of that.”
Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs), 36, a three-time Olympian from Brazil and his country’s first Olympic boxing gold medalist in 2016, said he was able to win their first fight despite issues in camp that he did not have to deal with this time.
“For the first fight, I didn’t have a great camp because I had a lot of pain,” Conceicao said. “I even had an illness in that last camp, and so even with that, I was still able to win. But this time, I had a really great camp. It was a good, clean preparation, so I'm going to win in even better fashion this time.”
In the 10-round co-feature, lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (21-0, 16 KOs), 27, of Fontana, California, who is closing in on a title shot, will face Jesus Perez (25-5, 18 KOs), 27, of Mexico, who is coming off an upset 10-round upset split decision over former junior lightweight titlist Joseph Diaz Jr. in a February junior welterweight bout that followed back-to-back losses to welterweight contender Alexis Rocha in October 2022 and Brian Norman Jr., who would go on to win the WBO welterweight title, in May 2023.
Olivieri elected WBO president
Gustavo Olivieri, the longtime WBO attorney, was elected president of the sanctioning body on Thursday during its annual convention in Puerto Rico.
He was elected after Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel, who led the WBO for 30 years, announced he would not seek re-election. He announced his retirement and urged the executive committee to support Olivieri for the position.
Olivieri, 40, of Puerto Rico, served for eight years as Valcarcel’s right-hand man and was the obvious choice to succeed him.
“I became president of the WBO in November 1994. I want to have time for myself,” Valcarcel, whose plan to retire was known by many in the industry for months, said at the convention. “Before the elections, I would like to tell everyone that I prefer to step aside. I am already 76 years old. You have the opportunity to elect the person who I hope will be the next president, who can help this organization to reach the place of honor where we have always wanted to be. I am asking those who are going to elect to accept that I am retiring and that the candidate for whom I would vote is called Gustavo Olivieri.”
Olivieri accepted and was elected.
“It is a privilege and I hope with everyone’s help to take this organization to another level,” Olivieri said. “I count on you. I lost a girlfriend because of work. My girlfriend told me, ‘Either Paco, (WBO executive) Luis (Batista), the WBO or me,’ and I said, ‘I love what I do, I’m happy with what I do and I’m passionate about what I do,’ and this isn’t a job for me; it’s a pleasure.
“I spend more time with Paco and Luis than with my family. Their teachings extend beyond the professional aspect. Beyond being my teachers, my advisors, you have become my family.”
During Valcarcel’s tenure as president he helped lead the WBO from being viewed by most as a fringe organization whose world titles were not taken seriously to joining the WBC, IBF and WBA as one of boxing’s major sanctioning bodies.
Martinez vacates title
Junior bantamweight Fernando Martinez, who unified the IBF and WBA titles by winning a unanimous decision over Kazuto Ioka to relieve him of the WBA belt in a bona fide fight of the year contender on July 7 in Japan, vacated the IBF strap on Tuesday.
The reason as it usually is when there is an IBF belt that has been unified: Martinez decided to accept a mid-six-figure payday — the biggest of his career — for a defense against Ioka in a rematch in Tokyo on Dec. 31 instead of facing obscure IBF mandatory challenger Willibaldo Garcia Perez in a fight that was ordered. It would pay Martinez a fraction of the money he will make for the Ioka rematch and give him far less exposure.
With Martinez vacating, the IBF on Thursday ordered Perez (22-5-1, 13 KOs), 34, to face Mexican countryman Rene Calixto Bibiano (23-0, 9 KOs), 29, for the vacant title, sending Perez promoter Sean Gibbons of MP Promotions and Tomoki Kameda of TMK International a letter ordering the bout.
The IBF gave them until Nov. 30 to make a deal before ordering a purse bid, but Gibbons told Fight Freaks Unite they are already close to a deal for a fight targeted for Osaka, Japan, on a TMK card in December.
O’Shaquie Foster interview
If you missed the recent podcast episode that includes my one-on-one interview with former WBC junior lightweight titlist O’Shaquie Foster ahead of Saturday’s rematch with Robson Conceicao, who won the title from him by controversial decision in July, we broke it out separately and you can listen to it here. Give it a listen, a review, and also subscribe to get an alert when the next episode is available. New shows every Thursday and Sunday night (and occasional special episodes like this one).
BetUS Boxing Show
If you missed the BetUS Boxing Show live at 1 p.m. ET on Friday on YouTube, please check out the replay (and also subscribe to the YouTube channel). We previewed and picked three fights that are on Saturday: WBC junior lightweight titlist Robson Conceicao’s rematch with former titlist O’Shaquie Foster that headlines the Top Rank/ESPN+ card and lightweight Floyd Schofield against Rene Tellez Giron and the undisputed women’s flyweight title bout between Gabriela Fundora and Gabriela Celeste Alaniz on Golden Boy’s DAZN card. We also took viewer questions and comments and discussed the latest boxing news! Please check out the show here:
Quick hits
Weights from Verona, New York, for the Top Rank card Saturday (ESPN+, 5:50 p.m. ET): Robson Conceicao 129.7 pounds, O’Shaquie Foster 129.9 (rematch for Conceicao’s WBC junior lightweight title); Raymond Muratalla 136.6, Jesus Perez 136.2; Bryce Mills 139.8, Mike Ohan Jr. 140.7; Abraham Nova 131.4, Humberto Galindo 131.3; Jahi Tucker 161.8, Quilisto Madera 161,8; Ali Feliz 224.1, Rashad Coulter 252.1; Yan Santana 126.8, Eduardo Baez 125.7;Damian Knyba 259.1, Richard Lartey 288.
Weights from Las Vegas for the Golden Boy card Saturday (DAZN, 8 p.m. ET): Floyd Schofield 134.4 pounds, Rene Tellez Giron 134.4; Bektemir Melikuziev 170, David Stevens 167.4 (WBA super middleweight eliminator but Melikuziev 2 pounds overweight and not eligible for the eliminator); Gabriela Fundora 111, Gabriela Alaniz 110.4 (for undisputed women’s flyweight title); Darius Fulghum 167, Christopher Pearson 166.4; Joel Iriarte 146.4, Xavier Madrid 147; Eric Tudor 145.8, Harold Calderon 146.6; Asa Stevens 125, Garen Diagan 125; Dalis Kaleiopu 130.8, Manuel Lerma 131.8; Jordan Fuentes 119, Roberto Pena 119.8.
Junior welterweight contender Jamaine Ortiz (18-2-1, 8 KOs), 28, of Worcester, Massachusetts, scored four knockdowns in a fourth-round knockout of late sub Cristian Mino (24-10-2, 17 KOs), 27, of Argentina, in the main event of a Boxlab Promotions card on DAZN on Friday night at the Caribe Royale resort in Orlando, Florida. Ortiz, who was coming off a disputed decision loss challenging lineal/WBO champion Teofimo Lopez in February, was sharp. He dropped Mino in each round — with a series of rights in the closing moments of the first round; a right to the body dropped him to all fours early in the second; a combination knocked him to all fours with 30 seconds left in the third; and, after referee Michael De Jesus docked Mino one point for tackling Ortiz in the fourth, he dropped him again with a left, causing De Jesus to stop it at 2 minutes.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn announced he has signed super middleweight Taylor Bevan, 23, of Wales, a highly touted amateur for Team GB, who won a 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medal. He will make his pro debut on the Sunny Edwards-Galal Yafai card on Nov. 30 (DAZN) at BP Pulse Live in Birmingham, England. “I feel like I’ve been waiting to turn pro for a long time,” Bevan said. “It’s something that since I started boxing, I’ve always wanted to do. Matchroom is one of the biggest companies out there in the sport and I’m just really looking forward to it. I feel like now is the right time to turn pro because everything has fallen into place for me. The (Paris) Olympic dream didn’t work out for me this year. I had the option to wait another four years, but I just feel like I’m at a good age now. I can take my time in the pros and really build into it.”
Show and tell
Featherweight champion Prince Naseem Hamed had come from England to the United States for the first fight of his big HBO contract and engaged in an incredibly exciting shootout with former titlist Kevin Kelley before knocking him out in the fourth round at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Hamed’s next fight was back in England, but then he returned to America for the third fight of the deal and made his 11th WBO title defense against Irishman Wayne McCullough, a former bantamweight titleholder, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hamed predicted a third-round knockout but McCullough had one of the best chins ever. The Prince came nowhere near stopping him en route to a decision win (118-110, 117-111, 116-110). It may have been a routine defense for Hamed but for me it was an extremely memorable event. The reason: It was the first of the 236 HBO boxing events I covered at ringside over the next 20 years and it was the first time I met many people in the boxing business I am still in touch with today. I have vivid memories of those couple of days I spent in Atlantic City.
I was there because I was in a loan program at USA Today, a position I applied for at the newspaper I worked at in Binghamton, New York, that was part of Gannett, which also owned the company flagship paper USA Today. The program required the Binghamton paper to send one staffer to the mother ship in Northern Virginia for the four-month program. I applied and was selected. Off I went for four months in the sports department at USA Today, literally a dream come true. I was assigned to the baseball desk and was part of the team that covered the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home run chase of 1998. I even wrote the story on Cal Ripken Jr. ending his consecutive games played streak that was my first story stripped across the top of the front page of the paper. After the baseball season I covered college basketball and football and the NFL. But I, along with the others in my loan group, were told that if there was something we wanted to do besides what we were assigned to ask and they’d try to make it happen. I wanted to write about boxing and asked. The editors were terrific in accommodating me. I wrote a few boxing stories and then asked if I could do something on Hamed-McCullough. Not only did they say yes, they said go to Atlantic City to cover the fight. And that is exactly what I did and I will never forget it, including Hamed’s legendary ring walk to “Thriller” as he danced through a mock graveyard knocking skulls off headstones on Halloween night, Oct. 31, 1998 — 26 years ago on Thursday. Here is my ringside credential in my collection.
P.S. When the loan ended, I returned to the Binghamton paper. A little over a year later those same editors hired me to be the full-time boxing writer at USA Today, where I would spend the next five years.
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Photos: Conceicao-Foster: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Olivieri and Valcarcel: WBO; Martinez: Naoki Fukuda; Schofield-Giron: Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy
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Love the origin story, Dan! Props to USA Today for birthing the OG Fight Freak!