Any ideas Naoya Inoue may have of becoming a four-weight world champion would be ended dramatically if he faced Stephen Fulton Jr, according to the American.
Fulton, the WBO super-bantamweight champion, is targeting unified success when he takes on WBC champion Brandon Figueroa on September 11.
‘Cool Boy Steph’ was a guest recently on Brian Custer’s Last Stand Podcast and was asked about the possibility of fighting the Japanese phenom who defends his WBO bantamweight crown this weekend against Michael Dasmarinas.
“He’s good but I have to say this if I break down that fight between me and him, I see me wiping him out clean,” said the unbeaten 26-year-old.
“He’s too small for me, he’s too short, his reach isn’t there, I’m not going to sit there for the power shots all the time. He’s good, don’t get me wrong, but he is not better than me. I believe the same thing that happened to [Luis] Nery would happen to him.”
Nery lost his WBC 122lb belt to Figueroa last month in an enthralling affair which ended in round 7 after the challenger landed a vicious body shot.
Inoue makes his fourth appearance as unified bantamweight champion this weekend against Dasmarinas in a Las Vegas fight which he is heavily favoured to win. If, as expected, the ‘Monster’ wins then speculation will ramp up as to who he may face next. A rematch with new WBC 118lb title holder Nonito Donaire would be appealing after the evergreen Filipino put on a superb display against Nordine Oubaali at the end of last month. Inoue and Donaire fought out a 2019 classic in Saitama when the Japanese superstar outpointed the full of life 38-year-old who gave Inoue one of the hardest fights of his career to date.
Should Inoue vacate his title and target four-weight success then his attention will turn to the winner of Figueroa v Fulton as well as the IBF and WBA champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev.