O'Shaquie Foster, the WBC junior lightweight champion, seemingly can’t buy a fight even as a champion. Foster had an unfavorable match-up earlier this year when he fought known spoiler Rey Vargas, who was largely avoided only to outbox him. Though the bout happened on Showtime, this bout on Saturday, October 28th will take place on DAZN, as he faces Eduardo 'Rocky' Hernandez, in a fight ordered by the WBC.
Yet, Foster’s story might mirror his teammate and stablemate, Regis Prograis, more than most think. Both largely avoided in possibly the prime of their career, and now Foster is looking to find a situation that best suits him to stay active.
Prograis, was in San Francisco, California, last week to promote his upcoming WBC junior welterweight world title defense against Devin Haney, which will happen at the Chase Center on December 9th. Prograis had the following praise for his teammate.
“Shock is going to win that fight, [for sure],” stated Regis Prograis about his long-time training partner, WBC super featherweight world champion, O’Shaquie Foster, whom he calls by his nickname ‘Shock’.
The fight is flying under the radar though for many reasons. Both fighters have been off mainstream television consistently for years. Foster has fought a fight on Showtime, then seemingly disappears or reappears on another network. Hernandez had a promotional issue and now is back to fighting. As a ‘fun fight’ between WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and MMA fighter Francis Ngannou seems to be getting all the headlines, the working-class fighters of Foster and Hernandez are battling Cancun, Mexico for their respect.
“Shock’s skill is unbelievable,” said Prograis to ProBox TV News. “How good Shock is. People just get mixed when they [don’t know the fighter], they look at the [his boxing] record, but I know him. Me and him spar a lot.”
Foster, has won eleven straight fights, after a rocky few fights in his career. Whereas the power puncher Hernandez has yet to see the seventh round in 35 pro fights. That said, Foster is fighting on the road yet again, as Foster is a champion, but traveling to Mexico to face the challenger.
It appears that Prograis thinks so highly of Foster that once this fight is over, Foster might be the ace in the hole for Prograis in terms of sparring in the dog days of camp as he gets ready for his December 9th, pay-per-view fight.
“Matter of fact, he will probably be coming [to spar] helping me,” said Prograis. “Shock is an unbelievable fighter. So much skill. I can’t put nobody over Shock to beat him at 130-lbs division.”
The bond between Prograis and Foster though is deeper than just training together as Prograis also spoke to the bond of not being given a lot via the sport of boxing. Foster had to earn his spot, and so did Prograis, who were both matched up tough and brought up from the notoriously evenly matched ShoBox: The Next Generation series, in which fighters had to be talented to make it out of that series. In many ways coming out of ShoBox: The Next Generation was a proving ground for a lot of modern blue-collar fighters.
“Like I said, I had the hard route,” said Prograis. “He had it, too, and both of us had the hard route, and me and him are [very close too]."
