Rey Vargas Vs. O’Shaquie Foster – Preview & Prediction for Saturday Showtime in San Antonio, TX
Via Knitting Ambrosio: Rey Vargas (36-2, 22 KOs) will be looking to claim his third world title this Saturday, February 11, when he faces #1 O’Shaquie Foster (19- 2, 11 KOs) for the vacant WBC super featherweight title in a 12-round match, live on Showtime at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
29-year-old Foster entered the competition with a streak of 9 wins since the previous loss Chinese Rolando in 2016. Foster is fighting at a high level not a boxer who lost to Chinaea and Samuel Teah.
Vargas, 5’10”, will play in Foster’s backyard, so it will be interesting to see how he deals with a crowd that is likely not on his side in this game.
Foster has the advantage that he’s been fighting at 130 for most of his 11-year professional career, and that could help him in this fight with the highly technical, 32-year-old Vargas.
Rey Vargas is more experienced
What could be a problem for Foster is his resume résumé, which consists primarily of C-level objections. The only notable objections to Foster’s resume are people. This:
- Miguel ‘Mickey’ Roman – *37 years old
- Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov
In contrast, Vargas triumphed over these talented warriors:
- Mark Magsayo
- Franklin Manzanilla
- Tomoko Kameda
- Azat Hovhannisyan
- Oscar negation
- Ronny Rios
- Gavin McDonnell
- Alexander Munoz
- Christianity
With a huge difference in experience against quality opponent in favor of Vargas, you have to lean in his direction to win this match on Saturday against Foster as he has engaged a much better opponent.
That’s not to say Foster can’t win, as he has decent skill and strength, but it will still be extremely difficult. He looks very good compared to his recent past prime minister Miguel Roman, and he was close to a decisive 12th round one-way win over Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov last March.
Obviously, it’s not ideal that Foster will be sacked for 11 months when he enters the ring against Vargas.
Prediction: Vargas wins
Former two-division world champion Rey Vargas will be too good for Foster on Saturday night. Vargas’ size and technical skill is far beyond anything Foster has handled before, and he won’t look to make up for that ability.
If Foster was a good boxer that would be a different story, but unfortunately for him, he is not that type of fighter.
This writer witnessed Vargas put on a boxing-class performance on Saturday night, confusing Foster and doing almost whatever he wanted inside the ring.
During Vargas’ final battle, he had problems with Mark Magsayo’s powers last July at the Alamodome. However, he won’t have to worry about that on Saturday night as Foster doesn’t possess the raw strength of the former WBC featherweight champion.
If you’re Foster you have to find a way to put pressure on Vargas because if you don’t pressure him in the first place, he’ll hit himself, that’s what we can see.
“Alamodeme has seen me crowned champion before, and they will review it on Saturday night,” Rey Vargas said. “My big goal is to be part of a club that won three leagues. I want to be one of the best ever in Mexican boxing.
“O’Shaquie is a quality fighter with a strong Olympic style. But I fought opponents of all different styles. What I noticed while watching O’Shaquie was that he had strayed from his path and started doing some things differently before this fight. That makes me think he’s feeling the pressure of this fight,” Vargas said.
It’s unknown what Vargas was referring to when he talked about Foster deviating from his normal path. Unless Vargas talks about something he found out from train clips of Foster, he looks as usual in recent fights.
At this point in Foster’s career, it would be foolish for him to make drastic changes to his fighting style for Saturday night’s game against Vargas because it wouldn’t be a good idea. if he’s tinkering with what got him this far.
Supplementary Card:
Mario Barrios vs Jovanie Santiago
Lenier Pero vs Viktor Vykhryst
Eumir Felix Marcial vs Ricardo Ruben Villalba
Claudio Marrero vs Gonzalo Fuenzalida
Fabian Diaz vs Eleazar Mendietta
Manuel Sifuentes vs. Jesus Ponce Aguilar
David Whitmire vs Keith Foreman
Daniel Heinen vs James Wohlschlegel
Dainier Pero vs Daniel Zavala
