A smiling O’Shaquie Foster seemed completely calm Thursday as he sat on the dais and discussed his fight with Stephen Fulton.

The result of the Fulton fight Saturday night in San Antonio will shape Foster’s financial future. The WBC super featherweight champion will either strengthen his position for title unification fights he wants in 2026 or lose leverage in his division.

Its impact on his career notwithstanding, the typical stress of this fight week, or any other, is nothing compared to what the resilient Foster felt before he fought Jon Fernandez in September 2018.

Foster was arrested in Houston “on an old gun charge” four days before they were scheduled to square off in a “ShoBox” main event in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Spain’s Fernandez was undefeated, a perfect opponent for Foster’s reputation restoration project. The Orange, Texas native was an accomplished amateur, and still just 25 years old, yet he needed to prove he was better than the two eight-round points losses on his record to Samuel Teah in November 2015 and Ronald Chinea in July 2016.

Foster should’ve been shedding the final few pounds for their televised 10-round, 130-pound bout. He instead sat in a jail cell in downtown Houston, unsure whether he’d be released in time to fly to Oklahoma and weigh in for that potentially career-changing chance.

Keith Mills, Foster’s manager and confidante, a close friend named Eric Turner and other supportive people in his life at that time made sure Foster was bailed out by Wednesday morning.

He defeated Fernandez by unanimous decision two nights later and resuscitated his career. Winning a WBC regional title earned Foster the top 10 ranking he needed to eventually challenge Rey Vargas, another unbeaten opponent he beat convincingly in February 2023 to win the WBC belt Foster (23-3, 12 KOs) will defend against Philadelphia’s Fulton (23-1, 8 KOs) on the Lamont Roach-Isaac Cruz pay-per-view undercard at Frost Bank Center (8 p.m. ET; $74.99).

“It just made me know I was supposed to be here, that I was supposed to be boxing,” Foster told The Ring. “If I didn’t make that fight, who knows where we would be today in the boxing world? Because that fight, that was my first title I fought for as a pro. And then that title got me ranked in the top 10 in the WBC. So, going from nothing, when a year before I was just getting out of jail, to being in the top 10 in the world, it was unbelievable. If I didn’t make it to that fight, and they held me a little longer, everything would’ve been different.”

Foster’s life was depressingly different eight years ago.

He was released from an approximate four-month incarceration once an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge was dropped. Hurricane Harvey decimated the Houston area at that time, though, which left a frustrated Foster to live in temporary FEMA housing provided by the government.

A confident Foster knew he had the talent to become a world champion. He also realized he needed to change his life away from the gym if he were ever going to reach the potential he demonstrated by reaching the 123-pound final at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, in which he lost to future IBF junior featherweight champ Joseph Diaz Jr., 17-14.

“I ain’t gonna lie,” Foster said. “At that time, I was kinda in the cross of I know I can do this, but at the same time, like when I first got out [of jail], I really didn’t know what was what, as far as what I was gonna do. I knew that I wanted to try to box again, but I didn’t have the vision for it at the time. So, I was still kinda stuck in the street mentality, as far as not having nobody and kinda having my back against the wall, not really caring if certain things would happen. And it just changed, man. Once I moved to Houston and I actually started going to the gym, that gave me a different light. That gave me a different look at it.”

Separating himself from friends who were in and out of trouble helped Foster focus on training. He won two four-round fights and an eight-rounder from December 2017 to April 2018, five months before he faced Fernandez.

Foster is 13-1 since Chinea beat him by split decision nine years ago.

His only loss during that successful stretch was a controversial 12-round, split-decision defeat to Robson Conceicao in July 2024. Foster regained his WBC 130-pound championship when he beat Brazil’s Conceicao by split decision in their immediate rematch 13 months ago.

The 32-year-old Foster hasn’t fought since his victory over Conceicao in November 2024. He is beyond thankful nonetheless for how his career and life unfolded after that fateful Fernandez fight week.

“It’s kinda unbelievable, where I came in 10 years,” Foster said. “Going through everything I went through, trying to make it out and just after I had the situation where I went to jail and then I came home and staying in FEMA rooms and all that, now I look back at it and now I’m a two-time world champion and, you know, it was just a long journey. Staying in FEMA rooms was kinda crazy. Like Hurricane Harvey had hit while I was in jail. So, they didn’t evacuate us while I was in jail, so when I got out of jail right after everything was all messed up. The streets, everything, the city was messed up.

“So, I stayed on my friend’s couch for a little while, and then I ended up going to Houston and was staying in FEMA rooms. So, I was staying there, going to the gym from there and, man, over time we fought a couple four-round fights and we jumped straight into 10-round fights. And we was like, ‘OK, we gonna go in on the B-side,’ because I ain’t have no promoter or nothing. Nobody really believed in me at the time, but we went in and we beat a couple guys that they thought we wasn’t supposed to beat and it was under their promotion. That just opened a lotta doors doing that and, man, now we here. It was a long journey, but for sure it was a great journey.”