Taking place at the Benito Juárez Sports Center in Cancun, Mexico, O’Shaquie Foster made the first defense of his WBC super featherweight title in a potential classic that was overshadowed by Tyson Fury's poor performance against Francis Ngannou. The back-and-forth bout saw Foster seemingly come from behind to get a stoppage in twelfth and final round to stop challenger, Eduardo "Rocky" Hernandez.
The fight went as follows. The early rounds saw Foster employ a lot of movement while fighting behind a jab as Hernandez in typical fashion came out aggressive. The bout featured a steady exchange of punches, with Hernandez landing to Foster's body being the most meaningful and the Mexican crowd cheering each shot by the challenger.
As we entered the mid-round Hernandez aggressively charged forward while Foster began to counter. Mixed with a livid crowd cheering all of Hernandez's work, along with a lot of body shots from Hernandez and a high workrate it appeared Hernandez might be edging the contest, or at least the optics of the bout.
Foster switched to a southpaw stance in the sixth round as if signaling he needed to adjust. The bout seemed to be a perception fight. If you liked seeing the aggression and volume of Hernandez you'd favor his work, whereas Foster was landing the cleaner punches, but wasn't coming forward and didn't appear to throw as much.
Hernandez was pushed backward in the ninth round by Foster, which showed Foster's ability to change in the fight, which saw the tenth round become one of the most physical of the contest.
The deciding moments of the bout came in the eleventh, when Foster, from a southpaw stance, rocked Hernandez, and before Hernandez was knocked out he landed a significant hook that also shook Foster. Possibly one of the best exchanges in a round in the whole year.
In the twelfth and final round, Foster came out on a mission to stop Hernandez. Foster would send Hernandez to the canvas, and Foster would send him down for a second time in the round. Foster would stop Hernandez at 2:38.
