Yaqubov, who was five inches shorter than the 5’10” Foster, found the target often with his left hands to the body, slowly sapping the energy from Foster in the third and fourth rounds and erasing the perpetual smile from the New Haven, Connecticut-based fighter’s face. Foster finally began to find answers in the fifth and sixth rounds, bringing his left hook behind his rights to cut off the escape route that Yaqubov repeatedly went to. Unable to roll to his right reliably, Yaqubov began to attack through the front door more frequently, which opened him up to the right hands from Foster.
