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ORANGE — O’Shaquie “Shock” Foster used to get nervous when stepping into the boxing ring.

Those days are over for the Southeast Texas champion with a hunger for more.

“Now, I get anxious,” he told Port Arthur Newsmedia. “It’s like, ‘let’s do it.’ If you are doing everything you are supposed to with the training and preparation, when you get to the fight, that is the easy part. That is the fun part. As long as you are training hard, grinding, putting everything in the gym, then you will get to the fight and do what you need to do.”

Foster clearly did everything he needed to do Feb. 11 when he claimed a dominant unanimous decision victory over Rey Vargas of Mexico to claim the vacant WBC Super Featherweight World Championship at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

Now comes the time to defend the belt and go looking for more.

Foster said he and his camp representatives are working to fight again in Houston on Sept. 9. That is still in the works, but he promised to be fighting again no later then October.

“I dream big,” he said. “I see myself being a multi-division champion. I see myself being a superstar in the next two years and being able to take over the sport, being in the pound-for-pound race. I’ve made history in the city, and I need to make it for the city.”

That devotion to his hometown of Orange and larger community of Southeast Texas is evident through his outreach work.

His inaugural SCHOOL SLAMDOWN: Back-to-School Drive is planned from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at Golden Chick, 1716 N. 16th St. in Orange. The fun includes giveaways of more than 200 meals and 100 backpacks with school supplies.

Foster is also going to bring signed boxing gloves and boxing trunks he previously fought in for a raffle.

Another fundraising raffle for Golden Chick gift cards is planned.

He is also hoping to lead a cancer walk in Orange this October in honor of his mother, Christie Williams, who died due to complications from cancer when he was 12 years old.

“I want everybody to come out,” Foster said. “This is just the first of many events that we are going to do. I want to keep them coming so it is a regular thing to give the city something to look forward to. I am trying to bring everyone in one area.”

Those opportunities get bigger with each victory, and his ability to win comes from strength inside and outside the gym.

Foster considers the mental part of his boxing approach as his best attribute.

“As long as I am thinking, clear-minded and the smartest person in there, then I am going to win,” he said.

Foster said that was a lesson he took to heart at the age of 15. He learned it after moving to Las Vegas for his freshman year of high school.

He recalls training with Roger Mayweather and his title-winning nephew Floyd Mayweather Jr.

“I was the only kid in the gym,” Foster said. “I worked with Roger everyday and that is what he always told me: speed, power, none of that wins. The smartest person is going to win, and it stuck with me forever.”

Now his biggest problem is weight. Foster (19-2-0) has fought at 130 pounds or heavier for most of his career.

He doesn’t eat pork or beef and has not since the end of 2017.

“When I am in camp, it is hard to keep weight on,” Foster jokes. “My training and sweating are so much that my coach and I were just talking about that at the gym.”

He started boxing at 8, and Foster recalls having discipline as a young child, which eventually steered away as a “lot of stuff happened between 2015 and 2017” that make me get focused and realize a lot of things.

Now he goes into every fight respecting his opponents, but he knows lots of fighters come in thinking he is just another boxer and they can “walk me down or just do whatever.”

That usually ends poorly for his opponents.

He said growing up in Southeast Texas and Orange made him stronger and hungrier to succeed. Foster remembers going to tournaments, being part of the smallest team there and no one knowing who he was. The fans would cheer on everyone else.

Now his goal is get back to Las Vegas to headline a boxing showcase where no one can deny his name or accomplishments.

“I fought in Vegas when I younger and I would love to go back to the bright lights in a big event,” he said. “That would be great. Vegas is a fighting city. The atmosphere and bright lights that comes with it would definitely take me to another level.”