Terence Crawford favors Stephen Fulton to win the biggest fight that’ll take place outside of the United States next week.
The unbeaten WBO welterweight champion respects Naoya Inoue, but Crawford considers Fulton’s size, strength and skills as advantages that’ll help him upset the Japanese superstar in their 12-round fight for Fulton’s WBC and WBO 122-pound championships. Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs) will face Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs) in a 12-round main event Tuesday night at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
“I’m leaning towards Fulton,” Crawford said before his open workout Wednesday afternoon at UFC APEX in Las Vegas. “I hope he brings it back to the United States. I hope he go out there and do good, and I wish him well.”
Crawford wouldn’t say whether Fulton-Inoue would end in a 12-round decision or a knockout. Inoue is the bigger puncher based on their records, but he has moved up from the bantamweight limit of 118 pounds to compete within the 122-pound division for the first time in his 10-year pro career.
“I don’t know,” Crawford said. “I think it’s gonna be a tough fight for both fellas and the better man is gonna win that day. I just think Fulton is the bigger, stronger guy – not only bigger and stronger, but he has skills, too. You know, it’s one thing [when] a lotta people say, ‘Oh, well, this guy is big. This guy is strong.’ But skills pay the bills and Floyd [has] proven that. And Fulton got the skills to back up his size as well.”
Philadelphia’s Fulton stands about 5-foot-7, approximately two inches taller than Inoue.
The hard-hitting Inoue became boxing’s first fully unified bantamweight champion of the four-belt era by knocking out England’s Paul Butler (34-3, 15 KOs) in the 11th round of his last fight, which took place December 13 at Ariake Arena. The Yokohama resident gave up his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 118-pound crowns to move up four pounds for the Fulton fight.
ESPN+ will stream Fulton-Inoue live in the United States at approximately 8 a.m. EDT (5 a.m. PDT) on Tuesday morning.
Four days later, Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) and Errol Spence Jr. (28-0, 22 KOs) will square off in a 12-round welterweight title unification fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas ($84.99; 8 p.m. EDT; 5 p.m. PDT). The 35-year-old Crawford, of Omaha, Nebraska, and the 33-year-old Spence, of DeSoto, Texas, will fight for Crawford’s WBO welterweight title and Spence’s IBF, WBA and WBC 147-pound championships.
Barring their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event ending in a draw or no-contest, Crawford, 35, or Spence, 33, will become boxing’s first undisputed welterweight champion since four sanctioning organizations gained recognition throughout the boxing world.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.