Foster vs Nova Prediction: Foster Won’t Give Up His Title Easily
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Ryan Sidle
One of boxing’s world titles will be defended on Friday night, in a fight that is likely to go under the radar for many, even fight fans. But we won’t leave you stranded without a clue what to bet on, instead, we’ve got all you need to know in our Foster vs Nova prediction.
The WBC super featherweight belt is the one up for grabs at the very start of the weekend, in Madison Square Garden, New York, in the Theater.
It’s just the second defense of the champion’s reign so far, after winning a vacant belt in February last year. The challenger is in his first title fight. Will that make a difference to our O’Shaquie Foster vs Abraham Nova prediction at one of boxing’s most iconic venues on Friday night?
The winner could be looking to start unifying a division that sees four different men currently holding different versions of the title. Even the Ring can’t decide who the best in the world is right now. Foster and Nova have the chance to break free from the pack.
Our Foster vs Nova Prediction: One Man Is Heavy Favorite
As it is WBC world champion Foster has probably managed to dip under the radar for a great many fans of the sport. And if he is just about on people’s radar then challenger Nova almost certainly won’t be, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a chance.
That said, one thing to take away from our Foster vs Nova prediction is that fact that the challenger seems to be extremely unfancied by the bookmakers.
We don’t think the difference between the pair is anywhere near that wide, but we won’t be backing against the champion. We think he’ll walk out of MSG with gold still around his waist.
Nova’s Hands Lead The Way To Foster Victory
It’s fair to say that Foster isn’t exactly a big hitter, even for the weight, and he doesn’t exactly finish his opponents all too regularly. That said, he has come up against some very good quality in some of his fights, so it’s not always easy to get to them.
What will help is the fact that Nova tends to hold his hands pretty low and fights with a degree of faith in his reflexes. It certainly makes him more dangerous on the attack.
However, on the flip side it also goes against him when he comes under pressure, and the champion is certainly a boxer who can put it on his opponents. That could certainly be what leads to the champ’s victory.
The Skills That Pay The Bills
Whilst he may not have shown all that much power in his career too often, not many people have managed to get to Foster in his professional career. He has compared himself to Terence Crawford, not in an arrogant way about how similar in quality they are, but due to their ability and penchant to switch their stance regularly. Will Nova be able to work out which hand is going to be the dominant one during the fight?
The challenger does fight in a style that could at least trouble the champion, as happened in his first title defense back in October. However, we don’t think it’ll be enough to stop him from defending the belt.
Southpaw Robeisy Ramirez clipped Nova during their fight and that might give Foster a hint as to how often he should switch things up.
Built Like A Champion
Not only does Nova have to fight the odds, he also has to beat a man who it seems was destined to become champion, and stay that way.
Whilst Foster has had his bumps along the way, he is starting to earn a reputation when it comes to world title fights. He was the underdog when coming up against WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas for the vacant title.
Despite that status he won via unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards, and no one could deny that he deserved the victory.
Fate played an even bigger role in his first defense. Foster came up against Eduardo Hernandez, who’d only been defeated once. The American also had to travel to the challenger’s home country, Mexico, in order to defend the belt.
Hernandez looked like he would be keeping the title in Cancun with him, with the home fighter up on two cards, and rightly so. However, the champion battled back in a round of the year contender in the 11th and dropped his opponent twice in the 12th to continue his reign as world champion.
Best Betting Odds and Strategy for Foster vs Nova
Based on our assessments of the fighters we’ve got our Foster vs Nova predictions for you. These are all the bets we think make sense for this Friday’s boxing main event.
Foster to win by TKO/KO: It’s absolutely mad how much of a heavy favorite Foster is to just win on the Moneyline. Sure, we think he’ll win and defend the title again but there’s no way Nova should be as long odds as +550, with the champ at -900. So with our prediction, we can’t just back the champ to win.
Fight under 10.5 rounds: As we’ve already said, Foster doesn’t wield that great a power in his fists but he can get through plenty of work instead. With the way Nova holds his hands so low we’re guessing that the pressure will eventually tell and the champion will drop his rival towards the back end of the fight but not as late as the win over Hernandez.
Foster to win in rounds 7-9: Like the previous bet this is based on our belief that Foster can’t just spring a big knockout blow from nowhere and finish things early. The champion is going to have to work hard to stop his opponent and it’s only going to come in the second half of the fight. Nova’s only previous loss came in the fifth round but we don’t think it’ll be quite that early on Friday.
Latest Foster vs Nova Odds
Foster to win by TKO/KO @ +175
Total rounds under 10.5 @ +165
Foster to win in rounds 7-9 @ +600
Full Foster vs Nova Preview
You’ve heard our O’Shaquie Foster vs Abraham Nova predictions for this weekend, now let’s dig further into the details. Read on for a full breakdown of each fighter’s stats, and how they match up at this stage of their careers.
O’Shaquie Foster – The Little Known Champ
There is no doubting Foster’s pedigree in the fight game, which started when he was in the amateur ranks. The Texan won a pair of national Golden Gloves championships in his younger years and wasn’t too far off qualifying for the London Olympics in 2012, but missed on representing Team USA.
He turned professional later that year and went about wracking up eight wins in a row. His first set back came in the ninth bout, when he was defeated by Samuel Teah by unanimous decision. After two wins on his recovery, he was then beaten by Rolando Chinea on a split decision.
The 30-year-old has been on the rise ever since and has won 11 fights on the run, which has got him into the position he now finds him. His biggest fights have come most recently in the lead up, winning and defending of his first ever world title.
Foster currently has a record of 23 fights, 21 wins and two losses. 12 of his wins have come by stoppage and the other nine on points. He is yet to be stopped in his professional career.
Abraham Nova – The Man With His Own Mascot
Those of us who are fans of other sports are used to seeing mascots trying to get the crowd going before a match and taking pictures with kids in the crowd. It’s certainly not something boxing has really embraced.
However, Nova, the man with a very recognizable beard, is a law unto himself when it comes to that. Friday’s challenger has his own mascot, of himself, which follows him during his ring walk, it’s a real sight.
For the 30-year-old it’s about taking the pressure and spotlight off him though, not because he’s arrogant enough to walk around with his own mascot.
He may be the same age as the champion, but Nova didn’t start his professional career until four years after. Despite that, he’s actually had more fights than Foster and has clearly made sure to keep himself active since turning pro.
He won the USA National championships at amateur in 2014 and reached the final of the regional Golden Gloves in 2016, before leaving the unpaid ranks.
The Puerto Rican won the first 21 fights of his career, before Robeisy Ramírez stopped him in the fifth round of their fight in June 2022.
Nova has won twice since to earn this title shot and has a career record of 23-1 with 16 wins by stoppage and seven by decision.
Ryan Sidle is a sports journalist with nearly a decade in the industry. He's been interested in boxing since Mike Tyson vs Frank Bruno and his MMA fandom was sparked by Michael Bisping and Anderson Silva.
