This week the boxing world stands still as Stephen Fulton defends his unified super-bantamweight titles against one of the hottest properties in the sport, Naoya Inoue.
Despite his significant size advantage and status as champion, Fulton goes into the bout as the underdog against the 122lb debutant, which speaks volumes of the high expectations that Inoue carries with him into the ring.
‘Cool Boy Steph’ travels to the challenger’s backyard of Japan with an undefeated record of twenty-one wins, eight of which have come by way of knockout, although he has won his last four fights by decision.
He won the WBO title back in 2021, where he comfortably outpointed Angelo Leo, before adding the WBC title with a career-best win over Brandon Figueroa in a much-closer contest.
Since then he has had just one further outing, defeating Daniel Roman by a wide decision in June 2022, meaning he ends a thirteen-month spell of inactivity when he steps through the ropes tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Inoue is regarded as one of the hardest pound-for-pound punchers on the planet, with twenty-one knockouts in his twenty-four wins to date, not even coming close to defeat during that time.
‘The Monster’ has knocked out each of his last five opponents and will be engaging in his nineteenth consecutive title bout on Tuesday.
Fulton will have a 1.5 inch height advantage (5ft 6½ vs 5ft 5) on the night, as well as a three inch reach advantage (70” vs 67.5”), meaning we should expect to see him attempt to box at range and prevent Inoue from working his way onto the inside of his long jab.
Although Fulton would be expected to win the battle of the jab due to his significant reach advantage, Inoue statistically has one of the best jabs in the business. The Japanese phenomenon lands an average of 8.6 jabs per/round (second in the sport behind Gennady Golovkin) and connects with it 25.7% of the time (the fifth highest across all divisions.)
There are also suspicions that Fulton was set to move up to featherweight before agreeing to the fight, meaning he may be tight on the scales and therefore susceptible to Inoue’s vicious body shots and possibly slowing down towards the later rounds of the clash.
As for Inoue, he seems exceptionally comfortable fighting at super-bantamweight for the first time, regardless of the fact that he began his career as a light-flyweight. It remains to be seen whether his famous punch power will be as effective in the 122lbs division.
Both men made weight, with Fulton hitting the scales at 121.9lbs and Inoue weighing-in at a career-high 121.7lbs, although the former will likely pile on some pounds overnight to further extend his physical advantages.
The event will take place at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo on Tuesday lunch-time, with ringwalks expected to take place between 12:30pm – 1pm, as Sky Sports begin their broadcast for UK viewers at 9:30AM.