O'Shaquie Foster cracks up at Ryan Garcia comparing their 2026 résumés: 'It ain't even close, man'

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O'Shaquie Foster outclassed Emanuel Navarrete this past Saturday in San Antonio, adding the WBO and IBF belts to his WBC super featherweight title and making a case for himself as a pound-for-pound top fighter.

Foster now has back-to-back elite wins after also beating ex-featherweight champion Raymond Ford in May. Many feel he has the strongest case to be 2026's Fighter of the Year — but not Ryan Garcia, who doesn't think Foster's 2026 compares to his own.

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Ford responded to Garcia's comments Wednesday on "The Ariel Helwani Show."

"I'm laughing because him even trying to explain that is funny as hell," Foster told Uncrowned. "Mario Barrios — I respect Barrios, he's from Texas. Shoutout to him. But come on man, he just had a tough fight with 45-year-old Pacquiao.

"I fought three fights in less than 10 months — [Stephen] Fulton, Ford, and now Navarrete. To say any of them fights were hard for me, come on now. The fans, people, everybody knows it. Every one of my last three fights, I made look easy.”

"The competition level is, by far, favoring my side," Foster continued. "Ex-world champion [Ford], highly touted. Unified champion in Navarrete. It's not even close.

"But I get what he's doing. He's trying to hype up his fans and create a narrative that his year was better than mine. But man, come on. Conor Benn. I respect Conor — to start boxing at 19 years old and to make it as far as he did and to make the money that he did, you’ve got to take your hat off to him. [But] comparing him to Navarrete, it ain't even close, man."

Foster's wins over Navarrete and Ford were conclusive, but Garcia argues that his shoutout victory over Barrios and early knockout of Benn was far more dominant.

There is not much argument that Foster beat two higher-level fighters compared to Garcia's 2026 wins, but as often is the case in boxing, Garcia's fights were on bigger stages, and therefore he may be recognized as Fighter of the Year by some.

After Foster's win over Naverrete, “Shock” now owns three of the four major titles at 130 pounds. The remaining belt, the WBA crown, belongs to Anthony Cacace, who defends it against Nick Ball on Dec. 19.

Foster wants to face the winner of Cacace vs. Ball immediately for an undisputed title showdown, and he hopes to travel to Belfast to see his potential next opponent in action.

"We're trying to make that happen right now," Foster said. "We're definitely going to be out there. I'm going to be out there scouting, seeing what's going. I want to see Cacace up close anyway. I think he's going to pull off the win, but [I'm] definitely going to be out there."

Foster's grand plan has two problems, though, and they can be summarized by one phrase: Mandatory challenger.

The WBA ordered Cacace to fight the interim champion Elnur Samedov in June. Cacace's team attempted to make the fight, but the British Boxing Board of Control would not give Russian citizen Samedov permission to box in the UK.

Instead, Queensberry asked the WBA for Cacace to be allowed a voluntary defense against Ball. A ruling was made to allow Cacace to fight Ball on the condition that the winner must confirm their participation in a bout with Samedov by Dec. 31, or risk being stripped of the title, with Samedov — the Regular champion — becoming the full titlist.

O'Shaquie Foster beat Emmanuel Navarrete to unify three super featherweight world titles.Ronald Cortes via Getty Images

Foster also has an outstanding mandatory commitment of his own against Charly Suarez. However, that issue may be taken care of already.

Foster's promoter, Top Rank, is working to re-sign Vasiliy Lomachenko when he returns to boxing in 2027, and it plans to stage his next fight against Suarez, potentially eradicating the mandatory problem and setting up a Foster-Lomachenko fight in the future.

"[I don't want to fight Lomachenko yet] not right off of retirement," Foster said. "I think it's been two or three years since he fought. I feel like I wouldn't get the credit. They already tried not to give me credit for certain fights.

"I'm just saying I'd rather he get a tune-up fight because I just fought, so it's going to be a little while before I fight again. So in between time, let him get busy and you know after that, if it looks good then let's do it. But I just don't want no excuses, that's it."

If the Cacace-Ball winner is busy with Samedov and Lomachenko is coming off a win over Suarez in early 2027, it may make sense for Foster to fight Lomachenko before going for undisputed later in 2027.

At the same time — and although it won't be in his immediate future — a clash between two of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Foster and Shakur Stevenson, is brewing in the background.

Stevenson gave Foster his plaudits after beating Navarrete on Saturday. The pair previously faced off in the ring following Foster's win over Stevenson's stablemate, Ford, in May.

"I don't know what he's talking about when he says, 'never give him his credit,'" Foster said.

"I've always said he was a great fighter. I've always said me and him was going to be a great fight. I never said that he was terrible. He's a great fighter, but at the end of the day, how I look at it is that I want to be on the other side of the ring [from him]."

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