Rowson: You’ve yet to see best of Brad

Brad Foster…three weight options open to the young star

BRAD Foster has, for too long, carried the lead weight burden of being a young man who could do no wrong, the best thing in the sport, a boxer guaranteed world honours.

The Lichfield 25-year-old is a brilliant, perhaps even phenomenal, talent. He’s a thoroughly nice, decent individual, to boot.

But anyone who believes any fighter can breeze a world title frankly doesn’t know the sport.

You have to graft for the right to compete for the game’s highest accolade. And having reached the top, a boxer has to be in the right place, at the right time against the right opponent.

That has not been lost on Foster’s veteran manager PJ Rowson, a man who knows the game inside out.

While others demanded to know when Brad would conquer the world, Rowson adopted a “hold your horse, he’s still learning” stance.

That “softly, softly” approach is the correct path and will bear fruit.

To some degree, the expectancy surrounding Foster has dimmed. Yet his achievements to date cannot be underestimated and are unlikely to be bettered.

He turned pro at 18 – the youngest fighter to sign professional forms – took the Midlands super-bantam title in his 10th contest, the British in his 11th, the Commonwealth in his 12th.

He earned outright ownership of a Lonsdale belt, then entered choppy waters.

Jason Cunningham controversially outpointed him with the British, Commonwealth and European titles on the line.

Tough Romanian Ionut Baluta outscored him for the WBC international crown.

Following that setback, Brad returned last December with a six round win at junior-lightweight (9st 4lbs).

Now it’s a case of wait-and-see for an athlete once dubbed British boxing’s “Wonderkid”.

“We are waiting at the moment because it’s all about contracts,” said PJ. “His contract is up with the Warrens in a couple of weeks time, so it’s up in the air.”

Progress has been stalled until the decision is made to renew Foster’s contract or not.

“Brad has not been too good,” said PJ. “He had a chest infection we didn’t know he’d got, but that’s now all been sorted. Hopefully, he’ll be out again in April.”

PJ’s faith in his fighter is unswerving.

“I believe in Brad Foster,” he stressed. “I don’t think the public have ever seen the Brad Foster I’ve seen. He has never shown the level of ability in fights that I’ve seen.

“He has a very high ranking at super-bantam and if they offered us a European title fight at super-bantam, yes, we’d take it.

“We got him out at Christmas and he weighed super-feather (junior-light). There’s also featherweight, he could fight for the British title at feather. So, we have three options there.

“I still don’t believe Brad lost to Cunningham, but that’s water under the bridge now. For the first six rounds against Cunningham, I sat back and thought, ‘this is a world class performance’. It’s getting him to perform at that level for 12 rounds.

“Listen, he’s broken so many records and I still see him competing at world level and at that level it’s who you come up against. I think this year will be a very big year for Brad Foster.”

Make no mistake: it is only a matter of time before Foster has another very significant belt wrapped round his waist.