O’Shaquie Foster believes Emanuel Navarrete’s destruction of Eduardo “Sugar” Nunez came against an opponent who couldn’t offer enough resistance, telling Lance Pugmire that the Mexican champion’s size helped him dominate.
Foster faces Navarrete in a super featherweight unification on October 24 in San Antonio. He acknowledges that Navarrete looked sharp against Nunez, but says he’ll present a different challenge.
“He looked sharp, but Nunez didn’t give us anything,” Foster told BoxingScene. “Nunez is too small. He was at 122lbs a couple years ago, so he’s a naturally smaller guy. When he tried to turn it up on Navarrete, he was too small. He couldn’t hurt him. Navarrete treated him like a little kid.”
Foster’s weight-history claim is inaccurate. Nunez’s last appearance near 122 pounds was in 2017, and he was slightly above that limit. More recent weight reports list him at 132.4 pounds against Oscar Escandon in 2023 and 133 against Miguel Marriaga in 2024. He was an established super featherweight champion when Navarrete beat him.
The stronger explanation is stylistic. Nunez is a straightforward slugger who gave Navarrete the kind of punching contest he thrives in. Navarrete proved better at it, overwhelming an opponent whose approach left him available for punishment.
That performance doesn’t erase the vulnerabilities exposed against Denys Berinchyk, Robson Conceicao and Charly Suarez. Berinchyk beat him at lightweight, while Conceicao and Suarez made his work difficult at 130. Navarrete can look destructive without being difficult to hit or impossible to outbox.
Foster’s opportunity is to make Navarrete work for his openings. Movement, counters, and changes of pace could force him into a less comfortable fight than Nunez provided. Trading for extended stretches would give away that advantage.
The uncertainty is whether Foster can sustain that discipline under pressure. His uneven majority-decision victory over Ray Ford leaves room for doubt.
Foster doesn’t need Nunez to have been undersized for his argument to work. He needs to demonstrate that Navarrete’s success against one slugger won’t translate against a champion offering a different style.