Notebook: Fulton on poor showing vs. Foster: 'Nowhere near best of me'
Opetaia challenger hospitalized after massive KO; Barrios to train with Goossen for Garcia fight; Monte Carlo fireworks; Teofimo-Shakur undercard; Tyson-Mayweather update; Quick hits; Show and tell
A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.
After O’Shaquie Foster routed Stephen Fulton Jr., who did virtually nothing for 12 rounds, to win the vacant WBC interim lightweight belt in the Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz-Lamont Roach Jr. co-feature of the PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view Saturday night at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Fulton quickly left the ring.
On Monday, Fulton (23-2, 8 KOs), 31, surfaced for his first public comments on the nightmare fight with a series of posts on social media.
“Congrats to Oshaq, had a great game plan and executed well,” Fulton wrote. “As for me y’all already know I’ll be back and better! I always do.
“If you lose you don’t give up no matter what and you keep going with your head high. That is what it’s like to be a man. How we handle ourselves after defeat is what makes us a champion. Thanks to all who support me even in defeat, head high we will be back!”
Philadelphia’s Fulton is the WBC featherweight titleholder and a former unified junior featherweight titlist and was moving up in weight, but nonetheless missed weight by two pounds and was ineligible to win Foster’s WBC junior lightweight title. So the WBC, at PBC’s request, agreed to sanction the bout for the interim lightweight belt, a reward to Fulton despite missing weight.
He went on to lose 119-109, 118-110 and a generous 117-111. According to CompuBox statistics, Foster (24-3, 12 KOs), 32, of Orange, Texas, who had a career-best performance, outlanded Fulton 191-56 and limited him to single-digit connects in every round.
