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Naoya Inoue's Career Defining Fight or Moment of Truth Versus Stephen Fulton? By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Wed, 08 Feb 2023  Will it be Naoya Inoue's career defining fight? Or will it be his moment of truth? The clash with American stylist Stephen Fulton will happen this spring, probably sometime between April and May in a still to be determined venue and as early as now, it is one of the most anticipated and eagerly awaited fight of 2023. As Fulton is the defending unified WBC-WBO super bantamweight champion, there is a huge chance that the meeting will be held in the USA but a fight in Japan cannot be discounted given Inoue"s tremendous popularity in his home country and the fact that Fulton himself has said he will fight Inoue anywhere. Regardless where the clash will be held, the onus is on Inoue to prove that it will be his career defining bout and not his moment of truth as Fulton has expressed confidence that it is his hands that will be raised, vowing he will "outclass" Inoue. Fulton has reasons to be confident. It will be Inoue's first fight at 122 lbs moving up from the bantamweight where he emerged as the first undisputed world champion in the four belts era after defeating Nonito Donaire for the WBC crown and Paul Butler for the WBO trinket to add to his unified WBA-IBF belts last year. He will be fighting Fulton for the American 's unified crowns without the benefit of a testing the water or even a tune up bout at 122 lbs. Most of all, according to Fulton, the Japanese Monster has not fought somebody as special him, with the speed, stamina and voluminous punching as well as ring movements that more than make up for his perceived lack of punching power. Though Fulton has knocked out or stopped just eight opponents on the way to posting a yet undefeated 20-0 record, a below .500 kayo clip, he has been into wars with and ably beaten some of the division's big punchers, the latest being the volume punching Brandon Figueroa whom he defeated by majority decision in one of the slambang bouts of 2022. Fulton said recently that he will surely outclass Inoue and pin him his first career loss. But Inoue must have his reasons to be confident in taking on Fulton in a bid to take his twin titles on his very debut at 122 lbs. Indeed, since winning his first world title at light flyweight by knocking out Adrian Hernandez for the WBC belt in only his sixth pro bout, Inoue has only been sternly challenged but just once, by Donaire in their first fight in 2019 which he won only by unanimous decision after rallying in the last few rounds of the fight. Only three---Donaire, David Carmona and fellow Japanese Ryochi Taguchi, very early in Inoue"s career, have heard the final bell. Inoue was taken to task for bypassing the flyweights where the likes of Roman Chocolatito Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada were then fighting but proved himself by becoming a dominant super flyweight titlist. After just one successful defense at 108 lbs, Inoue jumped two divisions up and won the WBO super flyweight crown by knocking out the usually resilient Omar Narvaez. He made seven successful title defenses at 115 lbs, all ending in knockout. As what becomes a habit, Inoue then moved up to bantamweight and won a world title in his very first fight at 118 lbs by shellacking Jamie McDonnell inside a round for the WBA regular belt (the super title was then held by Ryan Burnett who would lose it later to Donaire). Inoue would later add the IBF crown by knocking out Emmanuel Rodriguez and the WBA super belt by outpointing Donaire. After repeating over Donaire by second round knockout for the WBC belt, Inoue completed his collection last December by stopping Butler for the WBO diadem in Japan. Will Inoue continue his assault of the world titles at the lower weights in what could be his career defining fight thus far against Fulton? Or will Fulton give him his moment of truth by making good on his vow to outclass him this spring? Abangan! The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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