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As disappointed as Stephen Fulton was when he learned three months ago that his huge fight against Naoya Inoue had to be postponed, Fulton feels that the additional time to prepare for the biggest fight of his career has helped him.
Fulton took some time off from intense training once he found out late in March that Inoue suffered a knee injury while training for a fight that initially was scheduled for May 7 at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan. The unforeseen interruption in preparation for their 12-round, 122-pound title fight also afforded Fulton more time to study the Japanese superstar, who is generally regarded as one of the top three boxers, pound-for-pound, in the sport.
Their fight has been rescheduled for July 25 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, where Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs) will fight outside of the United States for the first time in nearly nine years as a pro.
“I just took my time, honestly,” Fulton told BoxingScene.com. “I went to the Tank and Ryan Garcia fight [on April 22 in Las Vegas]. I took my time, so it wasn’t such a bad thing. It actually gave me more time, you know, to really focus and think about my opponent more and the decisions that I can make, as well as adjustments. And I brought a lot more people in my camp, as far as sparring partners. You know, I feel like I’m taking it a lot more serious.”
Fulton, who will turn 29 the week before his fight with Inoue, isn’t concerned, either, that he began what is always a challenging weight cut, stopped it and then restarted the process once he returned to training camp.
“I can say I benefited from it,” Fulton said of the postponement. “I also be feeling like some people may think I haven’t [benefited] because I’m a big fighter [for the 122-pound division] and the weight [cut] and things like that. But it’s nothing I can’t do.”
Fulton will end a 13-month layoff against Inoue, who has boxed twice since Fulton defeated Daniel Roman (29-4-1, 10 KOs) by unanimous decision in their 12-rounder last June 4 at The Armory in Minneapolis.
Fulton, who will defend his WBC and WBO 122-pound crowns against Inoue, has trained in his hometown of Philadelphia, as usual. He plans to get in some more sparring in the Los Angeles area, though, before he leaves for Japan a couple weeks before he’ll encounter Inoue.
The 30-year-old Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs) will make his debut in the 122-pound division when he faces Fulton. He 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 occurred December 13 at Ariake Arena.
The 5-foot-7 Fulton has fought at or near the junior featherweight limit of 122 pounds since he made his pro debut in October 2014.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.