Foster, Navarrete to spar in featherweight unification fight at Frost Bank Center

Three titles will be at stake when two of the best fighters in the featherweight class meet on Saturday night at the Frost Bank Center.

O’Shaquie Foster and Emanuel Navarrete will spar off to unify the super featherweight world championships at 130 pounds, the main event of eight fights scheduled on the card.

Foster, 33, a native of Orange, Texas, is the two-time WBC super featherweight champion while Navarrete, 31, from San Juan Zitlaltepec, Mexico, holds both the WBO and IBF super lightweight titles.

Foster said he is going into his first unification fight not just with the mindset of winning, but with another purpose in mind as well.

“I see that as domination for me,” Foster said. “I’m preparing for anything he brings. I’m ready and I’m ready to make a statement. I just don’t want to win. I want to show the world I’m the best and I want to take the toughest challenge.”

A 14-year pro, Foster is 25-3 with 12 knockouts and retained his super featherweight belt by defeating former featherweight champion Raymond Ford in Houston by majority decision in May.

Foster said he has been wanting to fight Navarrete for a long time.

“I’ve been chasing this fight for almost three years,” Foster said. “Ever since I signed up with Top Rank (boxing promoter), I knew this was the fight I wanted. I wanted to challenge myself. I knew he (Navarrete) was a great champion and now we’re here.”

This will be the third time Foster will fight in San Antonio, having previously defeated Rey Vargas for the vacant WBC super featherweight title at the Alamodome in 2023 and winning the WBC interim lightweight title against Stephen Fulton at the Frost Bank Center last December.

Navarrete (40-2-1, 33 knockouts) made his professional debut at the age of 16. One of his biggest wins of his career came in December 2018 when he upset Isaac Dogboe to win the WBO junior featherweight title.

Navarrete won titles as a featherweight and super featherweight before moving up to the lightweight division in 2024, which ended up in a split decision with Denys Berinchyk. He retained the WBO super featherweight belt and won the IBF junior lightweight title by beating Eduardo Nunez in February in Glendale, Arizona.

Navarrete said he is thrilled to be in the unification fight.

“We all know the importance of this fight,” Navarrete said. “Without underestimating him (Foster), you know how exactly important victory would be. We’ve done the hard work and our purpose is 100 percent here for this fight and I think it’s going to be a good weekend.”

Navarrette said he is making some adjustments in his fight preparation which he believes will give him better results against Foster.

“I’ve also had to make some adjustments personally, I’ve had to modify certain things,” Navarrete said. “But the most important part is I’ve really concentrated and stuck to the game plan. I think the results will be very convincing.”

One of the big questions of the fight is whether Foster will be able to counter Navarrete’s unorthodox fighting style, known as “crazy fight style.”

Foster said he will not be drawn into Navarrete’s style of fighting in the ring.

“I flow with it,” Foster said. “I’m cool, confident. I don’t fight to other people’s advantages. Whatever he brings, I’ll adjust and it’s going to be a great night.”

Navarrete said he expects the fight with Foster to be like a “war.”

“I’m focused on working on coming and pushing my body to the limit,” Navarrete said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I respect his work. He’s a hard, complicated, strong fighter so there’s a lot of things I need to work on, just a lot of things I need to do.

“But I would like to say this one of the most important fights, if not the most important fight of my career,” Navarrete added. “So, I should come at 100 percent and confident that I can deliver a great fight for the people. I want this fight to be a war. So, he’s doing his part. I’m doing my part so that the people can walk away with having seen a good fight.”

Subscribe

There’s more to San Antonio with the Express-News. Subscribe today for just 25¢.

This article originally published at Foster, Navarrete to spar in featherweight unification fight at Frost Bank Center.