The first fight between Stephen Fulton and Brandon Figueroa was very close and highly competitive, even with two of the three scorecards reading 116-112 in Fulton’s favor after 12 rounds were completed. (The third judge saw it a draw at 114-114.)
Now, three years after Fulton and Figueroa met in a unification bout at junior featherweight, they are set to meet in a world title fight at 126. Figueroa was recently upgraded from the WBC’s interim titleholder to its full featherweight titleholder after Rey Vargas suffered a shoulder injury.
Figueroa-Fulton II will take place on the undercard of the Gervonta Davis-Lamont Roach Jr. pay-per-view on December 14 at the Toyota Center in Houston.
And this time, Fulton believes there won’t be any reason to debate the result.
“I feel like I’m going to do way better than I did the first time,” Fulton said in an interview with FightHype. “I outgrew 122. The first time, I should’ve moved up after I fought him. I stayed. It is what it is. I still beat him. Now let’s fight him at 126. Become a two-weight world champion, a three-time world champion.”
Fulton won his first world title in January 2021 with a wide decision over Angelo Leo. The Figueroa fight came 10 months later. And Fulton stuck around the 122-pound weight class even longer: He outpointed former titleholder Daniel Roman in June 2022 and then was stopped in eight rounds by Naoya Inoue in July 2023.
Fulton has since moved up to featherweight. Last month, he had to come off the canvas to eke out a split decision over Carlos Castro. The victory brought Fulton, a 30-year-old from Philadelphia, to 22-1 (8 KOs).
Figueroa, a 27-year-old from Weslaco, Texas, is 25-1-1 (19 KOs). He won his first world title at 122 in May 2021, knocking out the previously unbeaten Luis Nery in seven rounds. Then came the Fulton loss, after which Figueroa moved up to 126.
Figueroa’s featherweight debut also came against Castro — and he fared much better than Fulton did, scoring a sixth-round TKO over Castro in their July 2022 bout. Figueroa outpointed former titleholder Mark Magsayo in March 2023 for the WBC’s interim belt and then knocked out Jessie Magdaleno in the ninth round this May.
Figueroa has said in interviews that he believes he deserved the nod in November 2021. Fulton predicts that his rival won’t be repeating those sentiments in December 2024.
“He feel like he won. His family told him he won. I clearly landed the clearer and cleaner shots,” Fulton said. “It is what it is. We back. I don’t want to hear nothing else after this.”
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
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