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During a recent appearance on Inside the Ring, Foster made it plain. “If I can’t get Sha, they know that’s who I want next,” he said. “I ain’t going to shut up. I ain’t going to stop coming after him until we get in the ring.”
There is no doubt he wants the fight. It would be the biggest payday of his career and the type of win that changes his earning power overnight. The question is timing.
Foster is 32. That is not old in boxing terms, but it is not early either. If he wants that level of money and visibility, he has to push hard now. Waiting for the fight to come down to 130 is unlikely to work.
In December 2025, Foster briefly held the WBC interim lightweight title at 135 pounds after beating Stephen Fulton. That gave him a foothold in a deeper division. He vacated it and returned to super featherweight instead. Staying at 130 keeps him champion. It does not move him closer to Stevenson.
Shakur has moved to 140 and is chasing larger paydays against Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Conor Benn. The odds of him stepping away from those fights to return to 135 for Foster are slim.
If Foster truly wants that fight, the risk now runs upward. That means moving to 140, where the competition is stronger and the nights are harder.
He keeps calling the name. Sooner or later, he may have to chase it into a weight class that doesn’t forgive mistakes.
Minutes after reiterating his desire for a Stevenson fight, Foster posted on X, “I’m the best fighter in the world!!” Confidence is not the issue. If he truly wants the fight he keeps calling for, the next move is a division change.
Stepping into the 140-pound field, where Stevenson now operates and where the biggest purses are being negotiated, would place Foster in the same mix. One meaningful win there would do more for his case than a year of callouts at 130.
