Featherweight Stephen Fulton has an opportunity to become a two-division world champion but first must go to war against Brandon Figueroa to achieve that.
Philadelphia’s Fulton, 30, might have won his first encounter with Texas-based Figueroa at junior featherweight four years ago, but on February 1, the circumstances will be different as they prepare for a rematch at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The crunch encounter will take place on the David Benavidez and David Morrell undercard with Figueroa’s WBC 126-pound title on the line. Fulton says he’s ready to embrace the difficulties associated with facing the battle-hardened Figueroa.
“Maybe I’ll be victorious in winning another world title,” Fulton told BoxingScene. “Whatever I need to do to get the job done, that’s what’s gonna happen. The remake has helped my legacy by me fighting for this WBC belt in a second weight class, so I’ll be a two-division world champ.”
In a close and competitive encounter, Fulton earned a majority decision over Figueroa in their maiden clash. Two judges scored the bout 116-112 in Fulton’s favor after 12 grueling rounds while the third judge saw it a draw at 114-114.
Fulton became a unified WBC and WBO junior featherweight beltholder in the process and went on to successfully defend the titles against Daniel Roman in June 2022. But Fulton lost the titles to Japanese star Naoya Inoue 13 months later.
In September last year, Fulton, 22-1 (8 KOs), won a split decision over Carlos Castro in his only bout since losing to Naoya Inoue. Fulton spoke about how he had to learn to deal with Figueroa’s style of boxing on the inside during the first fight.
“I just have to be myself and when I’m myself, I control the narrative. When I’m just me, when I just be myself, have fun in there, and just fight however I wanna fight as well as make the adjustments that need to be made,” he said.
“Once again, I gotta fight how I fight. I just gotta be me, show the separation. I don’t wanna say too much about giving you the things that I wanna do. I had to be a smart fighter. I had to outthink him and be way smarter than him that night.”
Meanwhile, Figueroa, 25-1-1 (19 KOs), was upgraded from the WBC’s interim titleholder to its full featherweight champion status after Rey Vargas suffered a shoulder injury. Figueroa had beaten Mark Magsayo and stopped former 122-pound titleholder Jessie Magdaleno in May last year to clinch the WBC interim belt.
On February 1, Figueroa will be on a mission to avenge his only career loss to Fulton. Fulton, however, believes he has to work hard to win another world title in order to see what the future holds for him.
“I’m not sure yet. I just wanna focus on this, get the win, and then I’ll think about the future. But I wanna focus and get this win.”
Fulton would be willing to face any of the champions at 126 in a unification should he beat Figueroa, opening up possible clashes with Nick Ball (WBA), Angelo Leo (IBF), and Rafael Espinoza (WBO).
When asked of a possible clash with other 126-pound beltholders, Fulton said: “Whoever has the belt. That’s what I know. There is everyone who has the title. It really wouldn’t matter whichever one, but whichever makes the most sense for my career, where I am and where I am in my life”.
Bernard Neequaye is a sports journalist with a specialty in boxing coverage. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” in his native Ghana for years. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and through email at [email protected].
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