BoxRec

Following Stephen Foster Jr losing his European Title to Ermano Fegatilli and his exceptionally poor performance in the fight:

Do you think that Foster Jr was pushed into taking the fight?

Foster Jr by his own ad mission said that he had been suffering from a virus at the beginning of the week (Monday) and during the fight boxing pundits suspected that Foster was extremely weight-drained.

During the post fight interview, here are a few quotes from the former champ:
"I would like to thank Hatton Promotions for their support"...

"I just had to go through with it, everyone was counting on me to put on a good show"...

"I wanted to put up a good fight, there are a lot of people who have come here to watch me"...

"There was a lot of money at stake here tonight"...

This topicwas touched upon in another thread, but I decided to give it it's own thread.

So, was Foster persuaded to take the fight after the complications so near the fight date?

Can we smell Hatton Promotions behind this? What do you think?

I don't think he was pushed into making the fight but people need to understand, like all of us, Foster Jnr has bills to pay and a family to support. You don't fight, you don't get paid. Sure it could have been postponed but who knows how long that would take? As Hennessy knows all too well, Sky dates are hard to come by. I think he knew he wasn't 100% but didn't want a 9 week training camp to go to waste and didn't want to lose a good payday. He took a gamble that if at 60% or whatever, he would still have enough to beat Fegatilli and the gamble didn't pay off.

Personally i think the Kirakosyan win flatters Foster a bit..could have been on the verge of a title shot had he won saturday night...back to the drawing board!!

his dad put's alot of pressure on him i think & expects too much from him, which must be frustrating :!: he seem's hard to please.

hurlock wrote:his dad put's alot of pressure on him i think & expects too much from him, which must be frustrating :!: he seem's hard to please.

Agreed. It's definitely an added pressure.

Tommy Gunn13 wrote:Personally i think the Kirakosyan win flatters Foster a bit..

Agree. He is a decent, talented fighter, no doubt but the Belgian just proved to be the better fighter.

I think in all honesty, they under estimated him and paid the price.

He fought, got paid and he lost. That's it, really. I wouldn't fancy him to beat the Belgian, if they fought again either. His level is not above British / Euro, however as I said though, it doesnt mean the guy isn't any good.

let's see a rematch. surely that is the next fight? hatton promotions will want the EBU title fight for the TV date. foster will want to win the title back.

don't suppose there's any chance they could sneak crolla in there for the EBU title fight?

Autobarn wrote:l

don't suppose there's any chance they could sneak crolla in there for the EBU title fight?

i wouldn't be in the slightest bit surprised

I imagine that there's an awful lot of pressure on a headline boxer to fight even if they're not 100% or ill.

Lets see that Belgium against Burns - now thats a guy who deserves the shot.

I personally do think something was wrong with Foster last time. I aint convinced it is weight making problems - he started as a Featherweight - although he is pushing 30 now so is going to be filling out more now.

However, this was a guy who took Arthur's best punches, who took Matthews' best punches, who took Kirakosyan's best punchers, who took Simpson's best punches. He's never looked weak before - but this time he did, without anything noticable coming from the Belgium. After the 5th I was thinking the fight would be over by the 8th (if not sooner) in Foster's favour. The Belgium was wilting, getting backuped and doubling over with pain from a legitimate body shot (terrible reffereeing there).

Then Foster just let the Belgium come on top. Now I don't know what it was - I personally wouldn't mind better that Foster suffered a broken rib. Whatever it was, virus, or a relatively uncommon damage like a Broken rib - I aint convinced it would happen next time and I would favour Foster - just.

i think a rematch would tell us all we need to know.

the belgian would certainly make an interesting opponent for burns.
seems that foster - and also macklin last time - being ill made the "routine" fights seem much more interesting. resulting in good fights.

Salford's Stephen Foster Junior suffered a shock defeat over the weekend to unheralded Belgian Ermano Fegatilli which cost him the European super-featherweight title.
Foster was down five times on Saturday night in Bolton but showed immense guts to see it through to the finish where he conceded a unanimous decision that was surprisingly close in the scoring, but those scores were right. Foster controlled the first half of the 12-rounder but ran out of steam as the impressive Fegatilli took over with body shots. It looked like Foster went out for a quick win - and had smashed Russia's Leva Kirakosyan in three stunning rounds to win the title in October - only for the challenger to survive and fight back.
You know, after a close loss to Alex Arthur in 2007, Foster fought just five times up to Fegatilli and not one of those fights had lasted more six rounds. Where were the long fights that build up a fighter's stamina and prepare him for a 12-rounder, the long, regular fights? Marathon runner don't train over 800 metres every six months and a sequence of quick, easy wins for a fighter usually pave the way to defeat when the first class opponent comes along to survive the early rounds. Think of Ali-Foreman, Honeyghan-Curry, Watson-Benn, Sims-Duran...
Think of Fegatilli-Foster.