Stephen Fulton Promises to Return Strong Following Inoue Defeat
Whilst competing in Tokyo, Japan, former unified super bantamweight champion Stephen “Cool Boy Steph” Fulton (21-1, 8 KOs) suffered a bad day in the office. Nevertheless, even while freshly covered with the ash of defeat, the pride of Philadelphia stands undeterred. Fulton has promised a return to form following his recent in-ring setback.
The author of his first loss was three-division champion Naoya “Monster” Inoue (25-0, 22 KO’s), who stopped Cool Boy Steph in the eighth round of their duel. To further salt the wound of defeat, Fulton was also strong-armed for his WBO and WBC titles. Now, just hours removed from the fistic shellacking to Inoue, the former champion made the following post:
Fulton-Inoue was one of the more anticipated fights of this year. Several pundits felt Fulton would win, or at the very least, give Inoue the most difficult test of his career. But that didn’t turn out to be the case. The question now becomes: how will Cool Boy Steph recover and respond?
It’s clear that Inoue was the better man and has evolved into a great fighter. The Japanese superstar currently sits atop the 3kingsboxing.com Top Ten fighter rankings.
ROAD TO REDEMPTION
Despite this sobering loss, there still is a bright future for Fulton. Before the fight with Inoue, the Philly fighter openly contemplated moving up to 126 to fight for the Interim WBC featherweight title currently held by Brandon Figueroa. Given this recent turn of events it appears featherweight is his future.
This could be a good thing for Fulton. Featherweight is wide open since there is no established face of the division. With Fulton previously holding the WBC and WBO titles at 122, he would receive a high ranking by those sanctioning bodies, should he move up in weight. First however, we must make sure that this potentially demoralizing loss has not taken a chunk out of Fulton mentally, physically or both. Provided that he rebounds in solid fashion, Cool Boy Steph should be making noise at featherweight in no time. Either way, stay tuned to 3Kings Boxing to see how it all plays out.
