Stephen Fulton, the former WBC/WBO super bantamweight champion, is training for his next fight on August 17th.
The 29-year-old ‘Cool Boy Steph’ Fulton has had a year to recover from a crushing eighth-round knockout loss to Naoya Inoue on July 25th, 2023, in Tokyo, Japan.
Fulton Knocked Down a Peg
What made that defeat even tougher was how overmatched Fulton was against Inoue. His lack of power was evident from the start, as he was outgunned by the Japanese star and had no weaponry to compete. It was like a soldier bringing a cap gun to the battle and being massacred.
Fulton (21-1, 8 KOs) reportedly fights Ronny Rios in the chief support bout on the undercard of Caleb Plant vs. Trevor McCumby on August 17th at the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida. This would be a non-pay-per-view event by Premier Boxing Champions (PBC).
PBC is expected to stage its first non-PPV event on August 17 at the Caribe Royale in Orlando.
Things had been going well for Fulton until he ran into Inoue and was battered to pieces by the Japanese star. The fight was hard to watch because Fulton took huge shots from Inoue and answered with nothing.
It was a miracle that Fulton made it to the eighth round before finally succumbing to Inoue’s power because he took a shellacking from the Japanese star.
Before losing to Inoue, Fulton looked like pure 24k gold, beating these three fighters in his recent fights:
Danny Roman
Brandon Figueroa
Angelo Leo
Fulton’s opponent, 34-year-old former two-time world title challenger Ronny Rios (34-4, 17 KOs), isn’t a big puncher, but he’s still plenty tough with more power than him.
If Rios focuses on his power game in this fight, he could take advantage of Fulton’s weak powder puff shots and make their fight a continuation of the horror he suffered against the Japanese star.
Stephen Can’t Afford Another Defeat
A loss for Fulton against Rios would surely signal the end of his career because there would be no coming back from a defeat against a fighter at this level.
The only way back after losing to Ronny Rios would be for Fulton to move down in weight to bantamweight [118 lbs], and I don’t think that’s realistic, given Stephen’s age.
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