Sorry, hardcores, bad news. Stephen Fulton’s WBO/WBC junior featherweight world title defense against Naoya Inoue will not occur as planned. The much anticipated clash, originally set for Sunday, May 7, at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan — has been postponed. The cause? A training injury, not specified, suffered by Inoue. “Fulton-Inoue will be rescheduled for July, with a new date to be announced in due course,” read a release sent out by organizers.
The main event and undercard bouts will stream live in the U.S. on ESPN+.
When the scrap gets reset, Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs) will make his third title defense. It will be his second as a “unified champion.” He gained that status by defeating Brandon Figueroa in 2021.
Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs) is seen by many as the sport’s pound-for-pound king.
The three-division world champion will make his junior featherweight debut. He beat wickedly overmatched Paul Butler last December to become the undisputed bantamweight world champion.
All the “unified” and “undisputed” chatter oftentimes serves the purpose for marketing hype. But in this age of title dilution, the tags are often not indicative of the true merits of the owners. This Fulton-Inoue fight, though, was being looked at with high hopes on the part of cynics weary of boxing’s propensity to NOT make compelling coin flip fights.
Here’s hoping we get a reset date quick, and Fulton-Inoue can once again be something to look forward to.
Founder/editor Michael Woods got addicted to boxing in 1990, when Buster Douglas shocked the world with his demolition of the then-impregnable Mike Tyson.
The Brooklyn-based journalist has covered the sport since for ESPN The Magazine, ESPN.com, Bad Left Hook and RING. His journalism career started with NY Newsday in 1999.
Michael Woods is also an accomplished blow by blow and color man, having done work for Top Rank, DiBella Entertainment, EPIX, and for Facebook Fightnight Live, since 2017.