Longtime veteran Brian Foster will put to the test one of the sport’s rising stars, as he challenges undefeated World Series of Fighting lightweight champion Justin Gaethje in the WSOF 29 main event on Saturday at the Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley, Colorado.
“I’m better than every single [expletive] one of them,” Foster told Sherdog.com. “I’ll smoke those dudes in under two [expletive] minutes, and he knows that. My career states that. I’ve taken on welterweights the entire time and I’ve smoked a lot of those dudes in under two minutes, so the thought that a 155er is going to do that to me is retarded.
“He hasn’t fought anyone like me at all,” he added. “I’m a complete fighter. I’m not one-dimensional. I’ve got just as many submissions as I do knockouts, and he’s got other s--- to look forward to other than someone standing in there and banging with him.”
The onetime Victory Fighting Championship titleholder shares a common opponent with Gaethje: Luis Palomino. Both men have knocked out the Peruvian, Gaethje doing the honors twice. Foster does not shy away from the eight losses on his resume, as he thinks they have made him a better fighter. Gaethje will carry a 15-0 record into the cage.
Foster arrived here by winning an eight-man WSOF lightweight tournament in November. Brazilian Joao Zeferino actually eliminated him in the quarterfinals, scoring a heel hook submission 1:46 into their match. However, thanks to a rash of injuries, Foster was allowed to re-enter the competition. He knocked out Palomino in the semifinals before doing the same to Zeferino in the final.
“If you look at my record, you’ll know that I’m the kind of guy who learns from my mistakes,” Foster said. “I’ve never lost two fights in a row, and I’ve never lost the same way twice. When Zeferino heel hooked me, I knew in my mind and in my heart that it would not happen again. It was me being overly aggressive on the ground against a guy who was better on the ground than I was. It was I who made the mistake that allowed him to capitalize on my mistake in his own special ways. So I went back [and] assessed my situation, and when I got out there again, I administered the sort of ass whopping that I should have given him in the first place.”
Adversity was nothing new for Foster. He has endured his share of tragedies and seen his career interrupted by injuries. Foster was reported to have suffered a brain hemorrhage during a fight in 2011 and sustained a ruptured testicle in training soon after, leading to his release from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He pointed out inaccuracies in how his situation was detailed in the media.
“I never had surgery on my brain,” Foster said. “I had an MRI that showed a little spot that might have dispersed a little fluid on my brain, but everybody freaked out about it. I went back and had another one two weeks later, and nothing showed. I’ve had 10-15 of these things over the last four years, and nothing has ever showed. In my mind, there must have been some sort of error in the reports or something because I’ve never felt any effects of what they said it was, but this has been nothing but a headache trying to get this sorted out over the years.
“I had testicle surgery,” he added. “I got kneed in the balls, and I had to have one of my testicles operated on. That happened a week or two before I had to take the medicals where they found that spot on my brain. What I think happened was that the medicines I took for my nuts probably somehow showed up in my MRI. That’s the only thing I can come up with, so somewhere along the lines, it’s been reported that I had surgery on my brain when I actually only had it on my testicle.”
Foster prefers to move forward. He tries to learn from his mistakes and improve as a martial artist. The 31-year-old Sallisaw, Oklahoma, native plans to teach Gaethje a few lessons.
“I think the best of him is yet to come,” Foster said. “I really think he is going to be a great fighter -- he’s that talented -- but he has flaws like everybody else; and once he receives the ass whooping I’m about to throw at him, he’s going to get a lot better.”
While Foster sounds confident in a victory, he understands the dangers associated with fighting and knows well the unpredictable nature of the sport. Sometimes, one mistake can make all the difference, especially against an opponent as offensively gifted as Gaethje.
“He’s going to try to punch and kick you, so I’ve got to continuously move and make him guess,” Foster said. “With that being said, if I stand still and let him punch me, he’ll put me to sleep; but eventually, one of us is going to take a deep breath. The first person to take that deep breath is going to get his mouth closed by a right hand, and the night will end abruptly. I ain’t planning on it being me, I can promise you that.”