William Foster III withstood Edwin De Los Santos’ strong start Friday night to remain undefeated.
The West Haven, Connecticut, native aggressively fought the hard-hitting Dominican prospect over the final six rounds and won a battle of unbeaten junior lightweights that opened Showtime’s three-bout “ShoBox: The New Generation” telecast from Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida. Judges Erik Larsen and Alexander Levin scored their bout 77-74 for Foster (14-0, 9 KOs), who won an eight-round split decision.
Judge Efrain Lebron scored the action 77-74 for De Los Santos (13-1, 12 KOs), who had a point deducted during the fourth round by referee Frank Gentile for repeatedly putting Foster in headlocks.
The 22-year-old De Los Santos had knocked out all but one of his professional opponents prior to the Foster fight. The powerful southpaw appeared fatigued by the midway mark of their fight, though, and it showed over the final four rounds.
The 28-year-old Foster appeared to be in control when he connected with a hard jab 1:10 into the eighth and final round. De Los Santos initiated numerous clinches during the final three minutes of their fight, though he landed a right-left combination with about 25 seconds to go in their bout.
A counter right by Foster caught De Los Santos coming forward with about a minute to go in the seventh round. He later snapped back De Los Santos’ head with a jab with just under 30 seconds remaining in the seventh round.
De Los Santos continued to tie up Foster at times in the sixth round, but he landed a right hand that made Foster hold him with about 1:15 on the clock. Foster landed a right hand with about 20 seconds to go in the sixth round, but it otherwise was a solid round for De Los Santos.
Foster dictated the pace again in the fifth round, when De Los Santos basically boxed off his back foot when he didn’t hold Foster.
Gentile sternly warned De Los Santos for putting Foster in a headlock 25 seconds into the fourth round. He then deducted a point from De Los Santos just before the midway mark of the fourth round for doing the same thing.
A few seconds prior to that point deduction, an accidental clash of heads caused a cut over De Los Santos’ left eye. Once the action resumed, Foster remained the more accurate, busier fight during the second half of the fourth round.
De Los Santos caught Foster with a straight left and then a right hook with just over 30 seconds to go in the third round. Foster had some success earlier in the third round, when he pressed the action, landed to De Los Santos’ body and
De Los Santos landed the harder shots again in the second round, including a left uppercut in an exchange.
De Los Santos knocked Foster off balance with a right hook barely a minute into the first round. The first right hook he landed in the opening round, about 50 seconds into it, knocked Foster into the ropes.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.