O’Shaquie Foster’s brilliance makes him a three-belt champion over Emanuel Navarrete

“I knew he was going to be strong and awkward. I just had more in me,” Foster, 26-3, said in adding the IBF and WBO belts to his own WBC strap. “I knew I was the better inside and outside fighter. I knew I was levels above him.”

Navarrete admitted simply, “His style was better than mine tonight.”

In a complete showing that should launch him into the pound-for-pound rankings, Foster opened with a sweeping left to the head, then darted in with another left to the face as Navarrete, 40-3-1, yearned to just land a punch.

The foot speed of Foster kept him out of reach as he moved in with confidence to attack the body and head of the three-division champion.

Navarrete then launched two hard rights, along with a looping left that caught Foster as his footing escaped him in retreat – lifting the spirits of the pro-Navarrete crowd inFoster’s home state.

Foster’s hand speed trumped Navarrete’s in the third, but Navarrete followed by pressuring Foster to the ropes and landed crisply with a power left.

Foster met the pressure in the fourth, delivering a counter right and relying on steady feet to land poised scoring shots.

Foster’s willingness to trade in the center of the ring surprised, but the strategy bore fruit as he landed effective shots on the Mexican.

Relying on his defensive gifts and combinations, Foster affirmed his control of the bout in the sixth and cracked Navarrete with a chin shot in the final minute of the frame, leaving Navarrete to desperately chase him.

Navarrete’s punches-landed percentage through six rounds was 15 percent.

Foster then hammered Navarrete with a hurtful left to the head in the seventh, a flex to the crowd that he’s comfortable fighting foes from south of the border.

A head-jarring right by Foster started the eighth, as his corner urged him forward,knowing he’s never been dropped.

A sharp combination in the ninth revealed Foster’s comfort in working surgically in the face of a unified champion who knocked out 33 of his first 43 opponents.

Navarrete used the 10th to mount a desperate push, landing upon Foster until the Texan reverted to his position of superiority at the ring’s center.

Foster’s corner advised Navarrete burned up so much energy in the 10th, instructing Foster to seal the outcome. Navarrete landed a big uppercut to display his constant danger.

But Foster knew the history of Texas judging, how they robbed Pernell Whitaker of victory over Mexican great Julio Cesar Chavez Snr. a generation ago.

“My coaches said, ‘Go out and put him on his ass.’ That’s what I did,” Foster said in making a strong fighter-of-the-year appeal. “I pictured that overhand right catching him. It finally happened in the 12th.”

Foster charged Navarrete in the 12th, and when the pair moved to an opposite corner and engaged, Foster unleashed a right to the chin and knocked down Navarrete for just the second time in his career.

Another Foster right dropped Navarrete early in the final minute of the 12th, to notch a 10-7 round – and seal the victory.

Foster’s superb showing at age 33 happened because, “I just need to be focused. My focus is being the best I can be.”

Even though former three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko was in attendance and said he wants to fight Foster next, Foster said he’s open to keeping his WBO belt by meeting mandatory challenger Charly Suarez or fighting December’s WBA title winner between champion Anthony Cacace and former featherweight champion Nick Ball.

O’Shaquie Foster’s brilliance makes him a three-belt champion over Emanuel Navarrete