That’s the conclusion Foster reached after listening to the former WBA featherweight champion make what he considers nonsensical statements during the promotion of their 12-round, 130-pound title fight Saturday night in Houston. First and foremost, Foster reminded his trash-talking challenger that this is an optional defense of his WBC super featherweight title, thus he was in no way forced into facing Ford.

“I’m just ready to shut little dude up,” Foster told The Ring. “He makes no sense. It’s time to shut him up and humble him, put him back down to where he need to be.”

Ford (18-1-1, 9 KOs), a southpaw from Camden, New Jersey, is the WBC’s No. 2 contender for Foster’s title. Defending his crown against the WBC’s unknown No. 1 contender, Italy’s Michael Magnesi (26-2, 13 KOs), wouldn’t have been as marketable and therefore less profitable for Foster (24-3, 12 KOs).

The champion still can’t understand why Ford would push the narrative that he had no choice but to fight Ford next.

“I don’t know, I’m starting to think he don’t got it all,” Foster said. “I’m just being serious, because even his promoter [Eddie Hearn] told him on stage at the press conference that [I’m] right, that [I] didn’t have to take this fight. So, I don’t get where he be coming from, with the stuff he be saying. It literally makes no sense, but I think he got a key in his back, so he trying to find any way to make it seem like I been ducking him, to push a narrative or whatever. But it just don’t make no sense. Nobody sees it.”

Foster has taken most exception to the contention that he “ducked” Ford last summer, when Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing offered Foster a fight with Ford on approximately three weeks’ notice.

“They said I ducked him in August when he fought [Abraham] Nova,” Foster said, “but they called me three weeks ahead and they’re saying they called Nova five weeks ahead. So, it just don’t make no sense. I don’t get it.”

Ford defeated Nova by unanimous decision in a 10-round bout August 16 at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Foster, who beat Nova (24-4-1, 17 KOs) by split decision in February 2024, signed a contract to face former junior featherweight and featherweight champ Stephen Fulton before Ford’s handlers approached his team. The Foster-Fulton fight was postponed multiple times – initially due to Gervonta Davis’ indecision regarding an immediate rematch with Lamont Roach and later when Sebastian Fundora suffered a hand injury that postponed his pay-per-view main event versus Keith Thurman.

Foster finally fought Fulton (23-2, 8 KOs) on December 6, when the Orange, Texas native dominated the Philadelphia native in their 12-round fight for the WBC interim lightweight title on the Roach-Isaac Cruz undercard at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. They fought for a lightweight belt because Fulton came in two pounds overweight for their junior lightweight championship clash.

“If I got a contract that’s signed for a fight already,” Foster said, “and that fight falls through as far as the main event, not me and that fighter because me and Fulton didn’t get hurt, of course the date is gonna get moved back a little bit. But y’all called the champion three weeks ahead of time to come to Saudi Arabia to fight you – it just showed that you’re not serious. First off, you’re not confident in catching me at my full potential. You were trying to catch me when I had a short camp or something.

“Because I’m fighting Fulton and he’s orthodox, so why would I take a fight with you, when you’re a southpaw? I would have to switch up my whole sparring [schedule] and that would only give me two weeks to spar and get prepared. I think they was trying to catch me when I didn’t have as much time to get ready. … His team is not as confident as they’re trying to make it seem and they was trying to catch me at a bad time, basically. That’s it.”

Foster, 32, is The Ring’s second-ranked contender for its vacant junior lightweight title, behind only IBF/WBO champ Emanuel Navarrete (40-2-1, 33 KOs, 1 NC). Ford, 27, is ranked sixth by The Ring.

DAZN will stream Foster-Ford as a main event from Fertitta Center, on the campus of the University of Houston. The streaming service’s main undercard coverage is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET (1 a.m. BST).