“You got two scary dudes giving you advice,” Foster said to Fight Hub TV. “Hitchens is scary. I don’t know what kind of advice he can give. And Shakur, all he can do is tell him what he would do in the ring.”
Foster feels Stevenson’s style cannot simply be copied by Ford, especially once the fight turns physical.
“He don’t got the same skill set,” Foster said. “He try to fight like Shakur but when it come to distance, when it come to boxing IQ, certain things… yeah, you can be telling him these things, but what Mike Tyson say? Game plan out the window once he get cracked in the face.”
The WBC super featherweight champion made it clear that the issues with Ford go beyond normal pre-fight hype. Foster described Stevenson, Ford, and Hitchins as a connected group that has been working behind the scenes against him.
“Them as a group,” Foster said when asked where the animosity comes from. “I think what they wanted was they wanted me to be a group of people that’s running the game.”
Foster then pointed to Stevenson allegedly trying to keep tabs on his sparring sessions while publicly acting friendly toward him.
“Shakur messaging me talking about, ‘We ain’t in the same weight class. Why don’t we spar?’” Foster said. “But then you going to Ray Ford saying, ‘I’mma be there with you if you fight.’ Then I’m hearing through the wind you checking about sparring with me.”
The bitterness toward Stevenson appears deeper because Foster wanted the fight after Shakur moved to 135. Instead of defending the WBC lightweight belt against Foster, Stevenson allowed himself to be stripped after failing to pay the sanctioning fee before moving to 140, where he later defeated Teofimo Lopez for the WBO title. Foster says Stevenson still owes him that fight.
“If you run, the fans going to see,” Foster said. “You said you wouldn’t give me an opportunity till I gave Ford an opportunity. That ain’t why I’m giving Ford the opportunity, but coincidentally this how it came about.”
Foster also rejected the idea that Stevenson’s recent dominance makes him unbeatable.
“It’s going to come down in that fight with me and Shak, if it ever happened, it’s going to come down to now who can put it together on the offense,” Foster said. “Defense or whatever like sharpness is great, but he’s not an offensive fighter.”
The Houston native repeatedly returned to the idea that he is standing alone against a connected East Coast group of fighters.
“I’m not one of them guys where you think I’m, ‘Oh, y’all teaming up. Let me go find some people to team up with,’” Foster said. “Nah, I’m a one man. So, I come at y’all one by one, and I’ll knock y’all down for sure.”
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