Sometimes two words say everything. Devin Haney’s reaction to O’Shaquie Foster dominating Emanuel Navarrete, as AKHi TV reported it, was a post that read simply: “Shock Foster” — with a fire emoji. No essay, no angles. A sitting top name saluting the performance of the night.
His father was working the fight in real time. Per AKHi, Bill Haney was saying during the bout that Shock could not keep pulling out, that he needed to relax more and rest on the inside — and Foster did exactly that later in the fight, on his way to dropping Navarrete twice in the 12th and unifying three belts at 130.
AKHi’s case for why this win changes Foster’s position is the resume math. Foster had already beaten Stephen Fulton and Ray Ford, but neither man carried what Navarrete carried — a whole country behind him and a spot in the industry media’s top 10 pound-for-pound. Beat that man the way Foster beat him, and the host argues Foster should be Fighter of the Year for this year alone — and he is one belt removed from undisputed.
That last part is where Vasiliy Lomachenko walks into the story. Loma wants undisputed at 130. Foster is the roadblock standing in the supply line, and Foster knows it — per the host, Foster told Lomachenko to go get a tune-up first, so he looks like the Matrix again, so that when Foster beats him there are no excuses. The host favors Foster to school Lomachenko, outboxing him from the outside behind that reach at 130 and mixing it up inside the way he did with Navarrete.
The host even floated the cold possibility that Lomachenko cancels the comeback plan at 130 altogether and flips the script back down to 126 or 122 — and said Lomachenko might be better off fighting Tank Davis than fighting Foster right now. That is speculation, and AKHi labeled it as opinion. What is not speculation is the position Foster put himself in: he collected the belts while other names argued about weight and money. Now, if Lomachenko truly wants undisputed at 130, Lomachenko has to come see him.
Video credit: AKHi TV.
