The outcome may have been one-sided, but Stephen Fulton still looks back on his loss to Naoya Inoue in a junior featherweight unification fight with a sliver of positivity.
And of course there’s regret.
“As far as the experience – I love that level of competition,” Fulton told Boxingscene on Monday of his eighth-round stoppage loss in July 2023. “As far as what happened – I could have done a lot of things differently leading up to the fight, as well as in there.”
Fulton (21-1, 8 KOs) will try to rebuild his career and take a step toward regaining his status as one of boxing’s most skilled fighters when he returns to the ring on Sept. 14 to face Carlos Castro in his first fight at 126 pounds since 2018. Fulton will headline the Prime Video lead-in card to the PPV portion that is headlined by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez defending his three super middleweight titles against Edgar Berlanga next month at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, atop a PBC Pay-Per-View on Prime Video card on Mexican Independence Day Weekend.
Fulton was in attendance when Castro (30-2, 14 KOs) lost to Brandon Figueroa and Luis Nery. Fulton unified the belts at 122 pounds when he won a majority decision against Figueroa in 2021. He was a borderline pound-for-pound entrant when he entered the ring against Inoue, only to suffer the first loss of his career.
“I’m looking forward to stepping back into the ring,” Fulton said in a dressing room in Midtown Manhattan as he waited for the undercard press conference to start for the Sept. 14 card. “I watched his fights live. He’s a good fighter. That’s all I really have to say about him. It’s just good to be back and it’s great to be fighting on a Canelo card. I’m just looking to get back to where I was.”
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