By Brian Webber: In a miracle comeback, WBC super featherweight champion O’Shaquie Foster (21-2, 11 KOs) pulled out a victory from the jaws of defeat with a twelfth round TKO victory over his mandatory Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez (34-2, 31 KOs), who crumbled in the crucial moment on Saturday night in their headliner at Poliforum Benito Juarez in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. The time of the stoppage was at 2:38 of round twelve.
After the fight, the 28-year-old Foster said he wanted to fight the winner of the November 4th contest between IBF super featherweight champion Joe Cordina and Edward Vazquez.
If Foster gets his wish, he needs to consider taking some time off because tonight’s fight was an incredibly grueling one. He took a lot of hard headshots from the knockout artist and was hurt.
While it’s admirable that Foster was able to pull the victory, he might not be 100% if he jumps straight into the ring with the hard-hitting Cordina, who is a bigger puncher than Rocky Hernandez and more accurate with his shots.
Cordina won’t fight foolishly the way Hernandez did by brawling if he’s way ahead on the scorecards in the twelve like he did tonight. That was a crazy move on Rocky’s part to brawl when he needed to box in the final round, and he paid for his mistake by getting stopped by Foster.
The 11th was perhaps the round of the year, as both fighters were hurt and throwing nonstop shots. First, it was Hernandez staggered from a left uppercut from Foster.
When O’Shaquie unloaded on Hernandez against the ropes, he was clipped by a right hand to the head, causing him to retreat across the ring and shell up. Then it was Hernandez who was teeing off on a hurt Foster.
It was surprising that the referee didn’t stop the fight in that round because both guys looked like they were close to being halted.
Down on two of the scorecards going into round twelve, the 28-year-old Foster knocked down Hernandez twice and got a referee’s stoppage a moment later.
It’s debatable whether the referee should have stopped the fight, as there were only 22 seconds left in the round, and Hernandez might have been able to last out the remaining time to get the victory. The referee made the decision to halt the fight, which saved Foster from a certain defeat.
Both guys took a lot of punishment, but more so in Foster’s case. He was getting in every round until Hernandez made the mistake of letting his foot off the gas pedal in the ninth round, which gave O’Shaquie confidence that he needed to start fighting harder.
Before that, Foster looked dispirited, as Hernandez was pressuring him nonstop in every round, hammering him to the head and body. The movement that Foster had used to defeat Rey Vargas in his previous fight proved to be ineffective against Hernandez, who was cutting off the ring and nailing him to the body.
The body shots from Hernandez seemed to take the wheels away from Foster as he stopped moving and started taking the fight to him. That first big mistake that Rocky made in the fight. The second was choosing to slug with Foster in the twelfth round instead of playing it safe.