O’Shaquie Foster put on arguably the best performance of his career this past Saturday facing Emanuel Navarrete in a featherweight unification bout at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Foster (26-3, 12 KOs) nearly stopped Navarrete (40-3-1, 33 KOs), who is from Mexico, in the final frame of the scheduled 12-round match, putting him on the ring apron twice. Still, the scorecards reflected Foster’s command, as the three judges unanimously saw it 118-108, 115-111, 118-108, with Foster retaining his WBC super featherweight title and claiming Navarrete’s WBO and IBF super featherweight belts. “It was a great performance,” said the 33-year-old Foster, a native of Orange, Texas. “I finished strong, and I put him down twice in the end. A lot of people were saying that I didn’t have power and that I wouldn’t be able to keep him off me.
But I showed that I am a complete fighter.” Asked about potential bouts against undefeated WBO super lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson and former champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, Foster made it clear who he wants to fight next. “I want to become undisputed,” he said. “That’s my dream. I want to make history, and all I need is one more.” The one more is the WBA super featherweight championship held by Anthony Cacace.
This Halloween Saturday, Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez will challenge for the WBC super middleweight title when he faces Christian M’Billi in a 12-round bout in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Both fighters last stepped into the ring over 13 months ago, with M’Billi battling Lester Martinez to a draw. Later that night, Alvarez lost his WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO super middleweight titles to Terence Crawford, one of boxing’s all-time best, who has since retired.
On Nov. 14, Madison Square Garden will host the star-studded UFC 334, the promotion’s annual New York City card. In the main event, Ciryl Gane of France will defend his UFC heavyweight title for the first time against Josh Hokit. Gane defeated Alex Pereira to retain his interim heavyweight title at UFC White House in June.
Tom Aspinall, who defended his title against Gane in October, relinquished his championship after suffering an eye injury in the no-contest bout. Hokit defeated Derrick Lewis the same night, but he made mainstream headlines for a despicable comment about former First Lady Michelle Obama.
In the co-main event, in a bout originally scheduled for January, arguably the greatest women’s combat competitor ever, Amanda Nunes, returns to challenge Kayla Harrison in her first defense of the UFC women’s bantamweight strap. Nunes has not stepped inside the Octagon since June 2023, while Harrison last fought in June of last year.
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