SAN ANTONIO — O’Shaquie Foster said Thursday that he saw this fight as a domination. On Saturday night, he made it one.
Foster beat Emanuel Navarrete by unanimous decision, 118-108, 118-108 and 115-111, at Frost Bank Center to unify the WBC, WBO and IBF super featherweight titles and add The Ring championship. Foster (26-3, 12 KOs) did it in a building that clearly favored Navarrete (40-3-1, 33 KOs), who walked out to a mariachi band while boos rained down on Foster during his ring walk. Foster answered all of it with his feet, his jab and, in the last round, a right hand that put Navarrete on the canvas twice.
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O'Shaquie Foster celebrates the announcement by ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. that he has won by unanimous decision.
The fight was built on one question: could Navarrete turn it into a street fight? Foster never let him. He opened with a sweeping left hand that landed right away and spent the first round landing without getting hit. Navarrete needed to get inside and stay there, but Foster kept moving laterally, kept his right hand tight to his chin to guard against the left hook, and made Navarrete miss with punch after punch. When Navarrete did get close, Foster tied him up or spun away. Foster’s corner told him to go to the body every time he sidestepped, and Navarrete’s corner told him to do the same and make the fight ugly. Only one of them could execute it.
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O'Shaquie Foster lands a right hook on Emanuel Navarrete during his unanimous decision win on Saturday night at Frost Bank Center.
Navarrete had his moments, and the crowd let him know it. A fury of punches in the third round had the arena roaring and chanting “Vaquero,” and he found a rhythm again in the 10th, when the two stood and traded. Late in the 11th, an uppercut backed Foster into a corner just before the bell, and the broadcast team thought Navarrete might have hurt him.
But for most of the night, Foster was the one landing the heavier shots. In the fifth round, nearly every punch moved Navarrete. In the seventh, a left hook sent him behind his gloves, protecting himself, and he never fully recovered from it. By the 11th, Navarrete needed a knockout, and fatigue was catching up to him as his big swings kept missing.
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O'Shaquie Foster throws a straight right hand that lands on the chin of Emanuel Navarrete.
Then came the 12th. Foster’s corner told him to go out and put Navarrete down, and, as Foster put it afterward, “that’s what I did.” He caught Navarrete with a right hand for the first knockdown.
Navarrete argued that he slipped, but the referee still gave him the count. With 58 seconds left, another right hand landed on the tip of the chin and Navarrete went down again. He survived the second count, too, and made it to the final bell.
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O'Shaquie Foster looks on as Emanuel Navarrete is knocked down and takes a knee for the mandatory eight-count
Foster said the finish came from film study. “I knew watching film that he liked to lunge in, and I just kept picturing that overhand right,” he said. “I started catching him, and it finally came in the 12th round.” He added that he felt he had been breaking Navarrete down all night and “just timed him real good on that last round.”
It was the opposite of what Navarrete asked for at Thursday’s press conference, when he said he wanted “maybe even a bloody fight.” And it was what Foster had promised. He called himself “ice water” on Thursday and said he would adjust to whatever Navarrete brought. After the fight, he said he saw it coming. “I knew he was gonna be strong. I knew he was gonna be awkward. He’s a great champion,” Foster said. “I just had a little bit more in me tonight.” He also said he felt he was the better inside fighter and the better outside fighter, and that he “proved that tonight, but hats off to him.” Asked whether he felt Navarrete’s power, Foster said, “He could punch, but like I said before, I got a chin.”
In the co-main event, Albert “Chop Chop” Gonzalez kept his NABF featherweight title and his unbeaten record with a second-round knockout of Edward Vazquez. Gonzalez (19-0, 12 KOs) used a feel-out first round before a body shot ended it at 1:04 of the second. Vazquez took the count on one knee and did not beat it.
Earlier on the card, Frank Martin stopped Tarik Zaina at 2:38 of the seventh round. The broadcast said Martin was an 18-to-1 favorite, but Zaina was competitive and stayed in front of him for most of the fight until Martin’s left hand dropped him in the seventh and the referee stepped in.
Navarrete, also spoke in the ring with Chris Mannix and said he will take time to decide what comes next. He said any plans will have to wait and that he does not want to make a hasty decision while he is still analyzing what happened Saturday night. Navarrete however did not shy away from giving Foster his respect saying, " Boxing is a matter of styles and the truth is Foster's style was much better than mine. He is the winner, applaud him. The truth is that from the beginning I knew he was an exceptional, strong fighter. Very complete in all aspects of boxing. I am happy for my development. Maybe I lacked a little more push, but we are fine. I was analyzing, trying to understand what happened tonight. Congratulations to the champion."
Foster now holds three of the four major belts at 130 pounds, and he made clear what he wants next. The fourth, the WBA title, belongs to Anthony Cacace, who defends it against Nick Ball on Dec. 19 in Belfast. “So, the winner out of Cacace and Ball, come see me,” Foster said. He called Shakur Stevenson the top name on his list, “but first, I want to go undisputed” and “do something nobody’s ever done in the 130-pound division.”
He closed by thanking Top Rank, Navarrete and his team, and the city that hosted him. “I love San Antonio. This is my third performance out here, and it was another one of my best.”