Stephen Fulton: Angelo Leo first, then Title Holders
While he does not yet have a date set, rising super bantamweight talent Stephen “Cool Boy Steph” Fulton (18-0, 8 KO’s) is hopeful of a July return to the ring. Once back, Fulton has no mind for wasting his time on any manner of filler fights. It would be his intention to go straight for a meaningful opponent that will logically allow him to advance his career.
Luckily for him, Cool Boy already has his eyes set on a particular individual. In an exclusive interview with Premier Boxing Champions, Fulton spoke on his would-be next opponent, ideal scenario tournament, and overall ambition to usurp some world titles.
LOOKING FOR WORK
Currently, the slick Philly fighter is ranked #1 WBO and #6 WBC at super bantamweight. This is why he thinks it would be a swell idea to take on Angelo “El Chinito” Leo (19-0, 9 KO’s). Cool Boy figures if he can dust Leo off, who is ranked #2 WBO, it will put greater pressure on WBO world super bantamweight champion Emanuel “Vaquero” Navarrete (31-1, 27 KO’s) to fight him.
Even if defeating the Mayweather-promoted fighter doesn’t get him a title shot, Cool Boy understands that Leo is also ranked #3 IBF and #4 WBC. So a win over El Chinito would still advance his cause with those two other sanctioning bodies.
“Hopefully I’ll be back toward July or August or something like that, hopefully I’ll be back towards then. But I am definitely looking forward to fighting another undefeated fighter as well. So that would be my eighth, if things go as worked.”
“…I’m looking forward to Angelo Leo, I’m looking forward to him. Yeah, I want him. I want a belt though! Whoever, whichever champion want to fight me first, we can do that. But as of right now, me and Angelo Leo got to get some things out the way.”
GUNNING FOR A TITLE
If Fulton can’t pen a fight with Leo, he’s just as happy to test his might with WBC world super bantamweight champion Rey Vargas (34-0, 22 KO’s). The probability of this prizefight taking place increased dramatically when Vargas joined the roster of Premier Boxing Champions at the beginning of 2020. Seeing that the WBC champ was joining the PBC stable filled Fulton with excitement.
“That was exactly the first thing that came to my mind, was ‘I am going to get this WBO and then I am going to unify’. There is no need to play games, we don’t need to wait. Everybody said they want to be the best and they the best. Let’s fight, that’s it. The money is going to be made, let’s just fight and get it over with at this point.”
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!
Despite having yet to compete for his first world title, Stephen Fulton is extremely confident in his chances of toppling any of the current champions. He feels this so much so that he would love for a tournament to be set up to establish one undisputed champion in the division.
“Let’s see who is number one. We can do this like a little tournament, however they want to do it. Put all the top guys with the belts and the top prospects in that tournament. We can fight each other and whoever is that last one needs to be undisputed. And that’s how I feel all the weight classes should be, there’s too many people with belts.”
“Why not fight each other? Let’s see who the top guy out of that weight class, Rey Vargas going to let me do that, Navarrete going to let me do that and I forgot his name, MJ [IBF and WBA world super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev (8-0, 6 KO’s)] him. So whoever got those belts, that’s who I want.”
Now, for us, just as it is for Fulton himself, we have to play the waiting game and see who matches up with who first. Stay tuned to 3kingsboxing.com for all the latest boxing news and updates.
By: Bakari Simpson
