“The Monster” Naoya Inoue (井上 尚弥), 30, of Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan fought “Cool Boy Steph” Stephen Fulton Jr., 29, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan on July 25, 2023. It was a 12-round match.
Fulton is 5’6.5″ tall and has a 179 cm reach. Inoue is 5’5″ tall and has a 170 cm reach.
Inoue defeated Fulton via technical knockout at 1:14 of the eighth round. With this lost, the American boxer lost the unified super bantamweight titles of the World Boxing Council and the World Boxing Organization.
On January 23, 2021, Fulton won the WBO super bantamweight title in Montville, Connecticut, USA. On November 27, 2021, he retained the title while winning the WBC super bantamweight title in Paradise, Nevada, USA.
On June 4, 2022, Fulton retained the WBC and WBO super bantamweight titles in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On December 13, 2022, Inoue won the WBO bantamweight title while retaining the bantamweight titles of the WBC, The Ring, the International Boxing Federation and the World Boxing Association (Super).
Losing to Inoue downgraded Fulton’s professional boxing record to 21 wins and 1 loss while the Japanese boxer now has 25 wins and 0 loss. They were supposed to fight on May 7, 2023 but it was postponed on March 21, 2023 after the Japanese boxer’s fist was injured during training camp.
Born in Zama, Kanagawa, Inoue is the only Japanese fighter in history to be ranked number one pound for pound by The Ring. He made his professional boxing debut in Tokyo on October 2, 2012.
Born in Philadelphia, Fulton became a national Golden Gloves champion on May 18, 2013 when he won the 114-pound championship bout in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. On October 14, 2014, he made his professional boxing debut in Ledyard, Connecticut.
CONAN Daily 