Stephen Fulton acknowledged Naoya Inoue’s greatness and realizes he demanded what, on paper, appears to be the most difficult fight of his eight-year professional career.
The undefeated Philadelphia native also has seen weaknesses in “The Monster” that have made Fulton fully confident he is equipped to become the first fighter to defeat Inoue. Fulton will defend his WBC and WBO 122-pound championships against the Japanese superstar on Tuesday night at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
The 30-year-old Inoue has moved up from the bantamweight division to the junior featherweight limit to face Fulton.
“He’s a great fighter,” Fulton told BoxingScene.com. “And other fighters, when they’re going up against a great fighter or athlete, whatever it is, of course there’s gonna be things that we see that others maybe can’t see. You know what I’m saying? I see a lotta things that I can exploit. And I know it’s probably vice versa, so I feel like that’s how the fight is gonna go.
“He’s gonna try to exploit a lotta things and weaknesses that he feel like I have. And it’ll be the same for me. That’s gonna be the interesting part of the fight, both of us trying to, you know, take away each other’s best attributes, as well pinpoint those weaknesses. But overall, I feel like he’s a great fighter.”
The shorter Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs) will fight at a weight limit at which Fulton has competed at or near throughout his career. The three-weight world champion has knocked out 88 percent of his professional opponents, though, and is considered a harder puncher than Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs), who figures to attempt to out-box Inoue.
“He’s a pound-for-pound fighter, a three-weight world champ, a former undisputed [bantamweight champ],” Fulton said. “His accolades speak for itself. He’s a great fighter. That’s what I think of him, he’s a great fighter.”
Fulton hopes to earn recognition as a great fighter himself by beating Inoue, who became boxing’s first fully unified bantamweight champion of the four-belt era in his last fight, an 11th-round knockout of England’s Paul Butler (34-3, 15 KOs) on December 13 at Ariake Arena. Once Inoue decided to move up four pounds into Fulton’s division, the 29-year-old Fulton pushed for their fight to happen in Inoue’s home country.
They were initially scheduled to meet May 7 at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan, where Inoue resides. Fulton-Inoue was postponed 2½ months late in March, however, because Inoue reportedly suffered a minor knee injury while training.
Most oddsmakers have installed Inoue as more than a 3-1 favorite to win a 12-round main event ESPN+ will stream in the United States at approximately 8 a.m. EDT (5 a.m. PDT).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.