O’Shaquie Foster-Raymond Ford set for May 30 in Texas

O’Shaquie Foster will fight for the second straight time in his home state of Texas. And for the first time, he will be making a title defense in his hometown of Houston.

That defense will come against Raymond Ford on May 30, according to Mike Coppinger of The Ring.

The 32-year-old Foster, 24-3 (12 KOs), is in his second reign with the WBC junior lightweight belt. He won the vacant title in February 2023 with a wide decision over Rey Vargas. Foster then made two successful defenses against Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez – a sensational 12th-round stoppage while behind on the scorecards – and Abraham Nova.

But Foster dropped the belt to Robson Conceicao via split decision in July 2024. They met again about four months later, and this time Foster won the rematch with the better end of a split decision.

Foster was supposed to make his first defense in San Antonio in December against Stephen Fulton, but Fulton came in massively overweight. The WBC decided to make the fight for an interim lightweight belt instead. Foster clearly outpointed Fulton and then dropped the 135lbs trinket in favor of continuing his campaign at 130.

In Ford, Foster will be facing another opponent with world title credentials, adding to a list that also includes Vargas, Conceicao and Fulton. 

Ford, 18-1-1 (8 KOs), is a 27-year-old from Camden, New Jersey, who previously owned the WBA belt at featherweight.  

As with Foster vs. Hernandez, Ford was down on the cards going into the final round of his bout with Otabek Kholmatov for the vacant title in March 2024. Ford wound up stopping Kholmatov with just seven seconds remaining.

Three months later, Ford dropped the title to Nick Ball via split decision. Since then, Ford has competed at junior lightweight, notching three consecutive unanimous decision victories over the 23-2 Orlando Gonzalez, the 22-4-1 Thomas Mattice, and the aforementioned Nova.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.