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STEVE Foster Junior put in a heroic display against Scotland’s Alex Arthur in Saturday’s interim world title fight. Pic by Bill McLaughlin
STEVE Foster Junior put in a heroic display against Scotland’s Alex Arthur in Saturday’s interim world title fight. Pic by Bill McLaughlin
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Hat's off to Steve


20/12/2007

IT WAS fitting that Ricky Hatton was in Edinburgh on Saturday night to see his Greater Manchester mate Steve Foster Junior’s interim world title defeat to Alex Arthur.

For Foster Junior produced just the sort of lion-hearted display that the now world famous Hitman is renowned for.

Salfordian Foster Junior, aged 27, may have suffered his second professional defeat and failed in his bid to return to world title glory.

But he gave highly rated Scottish hero Arthur, aged 29, a real scare and his stock in boxing circles will now undoubtedly rise.

Foster Junior labelled the clash in front of a hostile home crowd the biggest fight of his life and he produced his best ever performance.

Some bookies rated his chances of victory at just 6-1. And the Foster Junior fans who had a flutter looked to be quids in when one of his many devilish right hooks sent Arthur crashing outside the ring in the 11th round.

His legs were gone and former WBU Featherweight champion Foster Junior moved in for the kill.

But the clock came to Arthur’s rescue and he survived the final round as well to triumph with a unanimous points win.

In the end, a docked point for what looked to be an accidental clash of heads and a body shot knock down at the end of a ninth round that Foster Junior had dominated proved to be costly for the Salford man.

Had they not happened, Foster Junior would have won as the judges’ scorecards were just 113-112, 114-111 and 114-111 in Arthur’s favour.

Foster Junior was awesome early doors and he had few problems in getting through Arthur’s defence.

But he had to step up a weight to secure the WBO interim super featherweight world title shot and Arthur’s extra strength and size gradually began to tell as he moved ahead on the scorecards.

But Foster Junior showed phenomenal bravery to hit back with a vengeance late on and come within a whisker of emulating fellow Greater Manchester boxer Michael Gomez’s shock knockout win against Arthur in 2003.

It was bravery to match anything that Hatton showed in his super fight with the world’s best pound-for-pound boxer Floyd Mayweather in Las Vagas seven days earlier.

But, unfortunately for Foster Junior, Arthur has improved a lot since Gomez inflicted his only professional defeat and he did enough to come out on top – just!


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Most recent 1 of 1 user comments

   All credit to Steve it was a quality performance but I think this article talks it up just a bit too much. It certainly wasn't a ticklin contest but it was supposed to be a boxing match - not a head-buttin contest! Steve and his team knows he needs to work on power-endurance and pacing because his work-rate dropped in the mid-rounds. Arthur was picking Foster off easily on the way in with his snappy jab. Steve was swinging wildly at times when we all know he's got better boxing skills than that. And please no 'accidental clash of heads'! That point deduction was fair; Steve was doin too much leadin with his head, not his hands! There's no doubt about it Steve Foster Jnr got heart and talent by the bucketload and he will go a long way but there's maturing work to do first. There's a fine line for a fighter between being confident and being over-cocky. Steve will do the hard conditioning work in the gym that will take him on and when he polishes up his slips and stops trying to be a latter-day Freddie Mills he'll get his big hooks going to the body where they'll really count. Take a leaf out of Hatton's or McGuigan's book and work the body more before going for the big finish. Billy Graham worked with Foster the Viking at the end of his career and they focused on defence, especialy slips. If Foster'd been slipping in - not geting pepped by the jab - and smashin hooks into Arthur's body consistently, rather than going for gold too soon the result might've been different but as it was it was a solid victory for Arthur. But boy oh boy Steve Foster Jnr's gonna get a lot better yet...
Richard Carvath
21/12/2007 at 16:43
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