Mac Foster

MacArthur "Mac" Foster (June 27, 1942 – July 19, 2010) was an American heavyweight professional boxer. Foster was known as one of the hardest punchers of his era, and it's said that he once knocked out the powerful and feared Sonny Liston during a sparring session. In his professional boxing career, he scored notable wins over top fighters such as Thad Spencer, Cleveland Williams and Zora Folley.

Early life

The son of Mississippi sharecroppers, Foster was a 6' 2" United States Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran. Born in Alexandria, Virginia he grew up in Fresno, California, the third of eleven children. His father was a nurse. Foster picked grapes and cotton as a youth. Fresno State University offered Foster a track and field scholarship out of Washington High School, but he volunteered for the United States Marines instead. In the service, Foster won fourteen amateur boxing titles. After a military discharge, Foster turned pro, becoming the third Fresno boxer of note (Young Corbett III was a world welterweight champion and Wayne Thornton rose through the rankings to become a number one heavyweight contender in 1970. Foster trained with Pat DiFuria at the Merced Street Gym.