Emmanuel Navarrete entered the ring Saturday night as the boxer with the reputation of being a power puncher who finishes fights.
However, it was O'Shaquie Foster, who grew up in Orange and lives and trains in Houston, standing over a thoroughly beaten Navarrete after a pair of 12th round knockdowns at San Antonio's Frost Bank Center on his way to a unanimous 118-108, 118-108, 115-111 decision to hold on to his World Boxing Council junior lightweight title, while taking Navarrete's World Boxing Organization and International Boxing Federation belts.
"I told y'all before, I'm the better inside fighter and the better outside fighter and I feel like I proved that tonight," Foster said in the ring immediately after the win. "Hats off to him, but I knew I was levels above him and I just wanted to prove it."
The 31-year-old Navarrete (40-3-1, 33 KOs) came out aggressively and the two fighters battled pretty evenly for the first four rounds, but Foster (26-3, 12 KOs) began to take control in the fifth round with effective counter punching and a sharpshooting right hand.
"In this sport, it's about styles," Navarrete said. "His style was better than mine tonight."
The hard-hitting Navarrete landed some power shots throughout the fight, including a right uppercut to the chin in the final 10 seconds of the 11th round that seemed to hurt Foster, but the champion held firm.
"Hell yeah, he can punch, but I've got a chin," Foster admitted. "I'm strong."
Although trying to determine how judges saw a fight always can be risky, it seemed pretty clear that Foster was ahead on the scorecards entering the 12th, but he was the one who chose to come out aggressively for the final round. Navarrete, who entered the night having tasted the canvas just once in his career, went down twice in the 12th.
"My coaches just told me, 'Go out and put him on his ass' and that's what I did," Foster said.
The first knockdown came with an overhand right, then he got him again with a right hook to the chin.
"I felt like was breaking him down throughout the fight and I just timed him good in that last round," Foster said.
With Foster holding three belts at 130 pounds now, he needs just to grab the World Boxing Association strap to become the first junior lightweight to unify the division since it expanded to four belts. Anthony Cacace defends his WBA belt against Nick Ball in December.
"I'm trying to go undisputed for sure, so the winner out of Cacace and Ball, come see me," Foster said.
Foster has long talked about getting a shot at unbeaten Shakur Stevenson, who jumped in the ring after Foster beat Raymond Ford at University of Houston's Fertitta Center and seemed to agree to fight his former training partner turned rival. However, Stevenson has jumped up to 140 pounds where he's claimed a belt, so with Foster so close to a unification, that fight will have to wait.
"Y'all know (Stevenson's) at the top of the list, but first I want to go undisputed, build my name and do something no one has ever done at the 130-pound division," Foster said. "Then, I'll go up and make my mark.
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There’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Houston's O'Shaquie Foster drops Emanuel Navarrete twice, takes his belts at 130 pounds.