Shawn Porter believes Carlos Castro was hard done by against Stephen Fulton

Former world champion Shawn Porter is in agreement with the many boxing fans who believe Carlos Castro should’ve earned more than he got from the Stephen “Cool Boy” Fulton fight last Saturday.

Fulton was adjudged a split decision winner over Castro in a close featherweight contest on the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga undercard at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Judges scored the bout 94-95, 96-93, and 95-94 in favor of Fulton.

Assessing the fight on his “The PorterWay Podcast”, Porter, a two-time welterweight champion, said Castro was a victim of the business side of boxing.

“Boxing tells you who to watch,” Porter said. “And what I mean by that is the business: who they feel is going to move the money, move the ticket sales. They’re telling you who to watch.

“Once upon a time, they were telling you to watch Rolly and Rolly ain’t really being Rolly. And even when Rolly was doing the big knockouts and stuff like that, again, when you look at the opposition, that wasn’t a Stephen Fulton-Carlos Castro kind of fight.

“You know what I mean? And so now you’re looking at the name Stephen Fulton, you’re looking at where he’s coming from.”

Mexico’s Castro, 30-3, (14 KOs), was at his best against 30-year-old Fulton of Philadelphia, recording a knockdown in five. But Fulton (22-1, 8 KOs), a former unified titlist at 122, rallied back to record a narrow decision victory in his debut 126-pound fight.

Despite believing Castro, 30, proved his mettle in the fight, Porter admitted he had Fulton ahead on his scorecards.

“I had him (Fulton) clearly winning and I apologize if my score is off,” admitted Porter. “I don’t think it is, but I apologize if my score I felt like he was at certain points a half step behind Cool Boy, and then the other points, a full step behind Cool Boy.

“And there were only a couple of rounds where it was clear and concise that he (Castro) won three rounds, and one of those was a knockdown round.”

The win over Castro is Fulton’s first since losing his unified WBC and WBO junior featherweight titles to hard-hitting Japanese Naoya Inoue last July. On his long-awaited return, Fulton came out tops in a performance many believe was disappointing.

On Fulton’s performance, Porter said, “This is Fulton’s first fight moving up. We’ve seen Carlos drop off in a few of the big fights that he’s been in, and we don’t think this is gonna be what it ended up being.

“Carlos Castro is the real deal, but he just doesn’t have a name. So, you guys don’t look at him like that. Think about it like the NFL or the NBA. There’re so many great players in the game, but we only talk about those significant quarterbacks.”

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].