LAS VEGAS – With his legendary, proud promoter standing beside him, Curmel Mouton exuded confidence that defies his age.
The highly touted, 17-year-old featherweight prospect predicted that he’ll become a better fighter than Naoya Inoue when he was informed that Shakur Stevenson compared his skill set to that of the renowned Japanese superstar the day before Moton made his impressive pro debut. Stevenson stated that Moton reminds him of a busier Inoue and expressed respect for his potential based in part on their sparring session early this year (https://www.boxingscene.com/shakur-stevenson-curmel-moton-truth-stylistically-maybe-like-inoue-great-fighter–178123).
“I’ve known Shakur for a long time, throughout the amateurs,” Moton said during his post-fight press conference. “He watched me grow up in the amateurs, too. And with the comparison, I mean, Inoue is a solid fighter. He has skills. He’s fast, strong. But I feel like I’ll be a lot bigger than him. I’ll be a lot better fighter than him when it’s all said and done. And I’m just getting started. I’m 17. This is my pro debut, and I feel like I have a lotta potential, and I’mma show it.”
Moton demolished Ezequiel Flores late Saturday night immediately after Canelo Alvarez beat Jermell Charlo by unanimous decision in the main event of a Showtime Pay-Per-View telecast from T-Mobile Arena. Las Vegas’ Moton overwhelmed Flores (4-1, 3 KOs) with his speed, precision and power, dropped the Riverside, California resident and later stopped him just 1:48 into their non-televised four-rounder.
The destructive Inoue, of course, is a four-weight world champion who is commonly considered one of the top three boxers, pound-for-pound, in the sport. Inoue (25-0, 22 KOs) became boxing’s first fully unified bantamweight champion of the four-belt era last December and has since defeated Philadelphia’s Stephen Fulton (21-1, 8 KOs) by eighth-round technical knockout to win the WBC and WBO 122-pound championships.
The 30-year-old Inoue is expected to attempt to fully unify the junior featherweight titles in December against the Philippines’ Marlon Tapales (37-3, 19 KOs), who owns the IBF and WBA belts.
Mayweather, whose company promotes Moton, has mentored Moton since he was a child. He wasn’t as bold as his young, ambitious boxer when asked about Stevenson’s comparison, yet the undefeated five-division champion did note that Inoue-Moton might be a fight that eventually gets put together.
“I can’t really say who his style is like,” Mayweather said regarding Moton. “You know, that kid from Japan, he’s a hell of a fighter, hell of a fighter. And what we doing in today’s time, we makin’ dream matches, no different from [when] we done the Mayweather-Canelo, we done the Mayweather-McGregor, we done the Mayweather-Pacquiao. We do the biggest matches out there. So, in due time, we never know. It can be [Moton] and, you know, I don’t really know how to pronounce his name, but the kid from Japan – if that’s OK, you know, no disrespect.
“But, and we know Shakur is one hell of a fighter. You know, and soon [Moton will] be in a position where he’s beating everybody. Then, eventually, everybody will be calling [Moton] out, no different from everybody wants to fight Tank. That’s just how it works in the sport of boxing.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.