The Quote
Right then. O’Shaquie Foster has been asked how he beats Emanuel Navarrete on October 24, and this is what came back.
“I’m gonna control the fight. I’m gonna dominate from Round One. I ain’t never ran from nobody. I put punishment and pain to my opponents as well. That night, he’s gonna get a boxing lesson.”
Brilliant press conference answer. Terrible fight plan, if he means the middle bit literally.
Navarrete Does Not Need You To Run. He Needs You To Stay.
Here is the thing about the Mexican. He is not a ring-cutter and he is not particularly quick on his feet. What he is, is enormous for the weight, awkward at every angle, and capable of throwing far more punches than should be physically possible over twelve rounds.
All of that only works on a man who stands still long enough to be hit. Give him a stationary target inside his range and he is the best version of himself — looping uppercuts from nowhere, hooks into the ribs, and an output nobody at 130lb can match for thirty-six minutes.
We saw exactly that in February. His opponent walked straight at him, stayed inside reach, and got dismantled inside ten rounds without Navarrete ever having to hunt anybody down. It was the tidiest he has looked in years, and it was tidy because the fight came to him.
Foster Will Land. That Is Not The Question.
Let's not beat around the bush — Foster’s straight shots are going to find a home. Navarrete drops his hands when he winds up, he always has, and a proper counter-puncher with Foster’s timing will punish that all night.
The question is what happens next. Clean punches on the chin have never once discouraged Navarrete. He does not respect power he has already tasted, and Foster does not carry the sort of one-shot venom that makes a man reconsider.
So you land, he keeps coming, and now you are in a phone box with somebody who is heavier, longer and busier than you. That is not a boxing lesson, that is a mugging with a scorecard attached.
The Fight Foster Should Actually Have
Counter, step off at an angle, make him reset his feet, repeat for twelve rounds. Boring to describe, beautiful to watch when it is done properly, and absolutely the way to win this.
Foster is more than capable of it. He beat Raymond Ford doing something close to it and he has been a proper technician his whole career. The tools are there.
The worry is pride. He has been called a runner, he has clearly heard it, and that quote reads like a man who has decided to prove a point rather than win a fight.
Luke’s Verdict
If Foster boxes, he wins a clear decision and the whole division has to rethink him. He is the better pure boxer and it is not particularly close.
But I do not think he boxes. I think the machismo wins, he plants his feet in round three to make a statement, and by round eight his legs are gone and Navarrete is leaning on him with forearms and digging hooks into his body.
My prediction: Navarrete by stoppage in the tenth or eleventh, and Foster will spend the next six months being told he should have boxed.
Full card details are on our fight schedule, and there is more at 130lb on the news page.