Featherweight Brandon Figueroa has a clear mission for his next fight: revenge against the only man who has ever beaten him.
Figueroa will face Stephen Fulton Jnr in the co-feature on the David Benavidez-David Morrell pay-per-view card set for February 1 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Figueroa, now 25-1-1 (19 KOs), dropped a majority decision to Fulton in a junior featherweight unification fight in November 2021, but he has won all three of his fights since. After stopping Carlos Castro in July 2022, Figueroa claimed an interim featherweight title by defeating Mark Magsayo in March 2023. Last May, he knocked out former belt holder Jessie Magdaleno.
Figueroa, a 28-year-old from Weslaco, Texas, wants to prove that he isn’t the same fighter who fought Fulton and lost.
“I’m always evolving as a fighter,” Figueroa said at Thursday’s media workout. “I have to make my style better and get sharper and sharper. To fight the top-level guys, I have to keep getting better. I have to show that I can do everything.”
In the first Fulton bout, a slight majority of fans who scored the fight on BoxRec.com gave the edge to Figueroa. Since then, like Figueroa, Fulton has fought only three times. Most notably, in July 2023, he was knocked out by Naoya Inoue in Japan. Fulton then took off 14 months before returning against Carlos Castro, winning a split decision – but getting dropped in the process.
“I’ve had good wins since our first fight and I’ve continued to grow as a fighter,” Figueroa said. “I don’t take anything away from Fulton for his recent performances. I know that I make him better as a fighter, just like he makes me better. I know that he’s going to be at his best because he knows what I bring to the ring.”
Fulton, a 30-year-old from Philadelphia, made several bouts at featherweight before unifying two junior featherweight titles against Figueroa. But the Castro matchup was his first against a world-class 126lbs opponent.
Despite entering the bout with a win over Figueroa, it is Fulton, 22-1 (8 KOs), who seems to be the fighter with more to prove. Since his loss to Inoue, Fulton has fought only once, against Castro – and it wasn’t a strong performance.
With the featherweight division seemingly in the midst of reinventing itself, Figueroa believes he is nearing the peak of his powers and can dominate the weight class.
“I’m definitely in my prime right now,” Figueroa said. “I feel strong and I can’t wait to put it all together in the ring.”
Lucas Ketelle took an unconventional path to boxing, eventually finding his stride in gyms and media. For the past decade, he has hosted the “Lukie Boxing” podcast, filmed training camps for fighters like Arnold Barboza Jnr, Mikey Garcia and Caleb Plant, and worked with top professionals such as Mike Bazzel. Ketelle is also an author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for ProBox TV, BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @LukieBoxing.
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