Former British and Commonwealth champ Brad Foster suffered his second defeat of his career as he challenged for the Vacant WBC International Super-bantamweight title at York Hall (20.5.22). The fight was promoted by Queensberry promotions where Foster (24) took on the Romanian Lonut Baluta (28) in the main event of the show. Foster weighed in at 8 stone 10 with Baluta coming a Pound over before returning and making the weight, referee on the night was John Latharn in thus 10 round contest.
Foster began the fight well, drawing Baluta in and landing some nice left hooks, but the action was very scrappy. Baluta stayed in the fight and let plenty of shots go with not many landing, in the fourth round Foster picked up a warning for throwing Baluta to the floor. Both fighters had success in the sixth round as thing started to heat up but things got messy again in the seventh with Foster picking up another warning for using his head, while Baluta caught him with a good right. With clean shots being a rarity Baluta was the busier while they were in the holds working on the inside. It did look like Foster had injured his right hand as he was not letting it go which seemed to spur on Baluta who went all out in the last few rounds but they were again very messy.
At the end of the tenth round the verdict was unanimous with judge Victor Locklin having it 98 to 94 and Francisco Rosa and Kieran McCann both having it 97 to 93 all in favour of Baluta.
Dexter’s Thought’s
Very messy fight that didn’t do Foster any favours and suited Baluta. Foster is a much better fighter than he showed tonight but this is now two title defeats on the bounce which will affect his chances of getting back his British and Commonwealth title against Cunningham or moving on to bigger titles. Foster is still a young man and I’m sure him and his team will look at this defeat and learn from it. Foster’s quest is to become a world champion and I still think he can achieve this, but after this defeat it will take a little bit longer.