Fulton Ready To Take The Fight To Inoue & Silence The Critics!
In one of the most anticipated fights of 2023, Stephen “Cool Boy Steph” Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs) defends the unified junior featherweight titles against the three-division world champion Naoya “Monster” Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs) on July 25 in Tokyo, Japan. Speaking to Top Rank, Fulton relishes the opportunity to defend the title in his opponent’s backyard in Japan and wants to silence those who doubt his chances to win.
“Going out to Japan and living up to the moment and defeating him in his home country, that’s major.”
Stephen Fulton – WBC/WBO Junior Featherweight Champion
MUTUAL INTEREST
Inoue had his eyes on fighting Fulton since the summer of 2022 when Inoue was the reigning unified bantamweight champion. But first, the Japanese superstar wanted to become undisputed at 118lbs. Inoue accomplished that goal in December 2022 when he stopped then-WBO-champion Paul Butler in eleven rounds. A month after the win over Butler, Monster announced that he was moving up to junior featherweight.
Fulton had just as much desire to face the multi-divisional champion. The fighting pride of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was in the position to move up to 126lbs to fight a rematch with Brandon Figueroa for the WBC Interim Featherweight title. But Fulton bypassed it for the opportunity to fight Inoue at 122lbs.
EMBRACING THE ROLE OF THE UNDERDOG
Despite being the defending champion and the naturally bigger fighter, several observers favor Inoue to win. However, Fulton could care less.
He feels Inoue has never been in the ring with anyone like him. If folks consider him the underdog, Fulton is fueled by the cynics and intends to shut them up on fight night.
“When you’re the underdog, you’re overlooked or underlooked however you want to put it. I’ve seen and heard a lot of the things that people are saying about the power (of Inoue), or he may not have the chin, or Inoue is this, or he’s that.
“I like that. I like those types of comments. That made me like, alright, they don’t believe in me. Well, let’s make them believers.”
Stephen Fulton – Unified Junior Featherweight Champion
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