Boxing Challenge

  The boxing world comes to a halt for a mid-week fight from Tokyo that is one of the best matches that the sport can put together as the unbeaten, three-division champion Naoya "The Monster" Inoue, who most recently held all four titles in the bantamweight division moves up to the junior featherweight division to face the best fighter in the division in the WBC and WBO champion Stephen Fulton.

Fulton owns a huge win to unify his titles over Brandon Figueroa by a close majority decision in 2021 but has fought only once since, dominating former WBA and IBF champion Daniel Roman by an easy unanimous decision.

Fulton's skills rank with the best in boxing and the only flaw is a lack of power with only eight of his twenty-one wins by knockout, so while Fulton is a live underdog here and I give him a chance against Inoue, it's not a stretch to wonder about his layoff and can he hurt Inoue enough to keep the Monster from walking through his punches and breaking him down.

It's also reasonable to wonder if Inoue can catch the smoother boxer and larger man with the type of punches that have devastated everyone that he has faced in three divisions and what happens should Inoue hit Fulton and Fulton takes the best of Inoue well.

Inoue is arguably the best fighter in the world right now but every fighter reaches a wall as they progress through divisions and sooner or later will reach a point where the larger opponents turn a great fighter into a merely very good one and Stephen Fulton is the best test for Inoue at 122 pounds of this theory.

It happens to every great fighter and when you push the wall enough, it will eventually crumble, the question is when does it happen?

In facing Stephen Fulton without a fight at the weight and battling the best of the division, we will know very quickly if Inoue has reached the wall now.

In the co-feature, Robeisy Ramirez defends his WBO featherweight crown for the first time against Satoshi Shimizu of Japan.

Shimizu won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics but as a professional, Shimizu hasn't fought any world-class opponents and Ramirez has steadily improved after a rocky start as a pro with a great performance against Isaac Dogboe in his last fight to win the WBO title that was vacated by Emmanuel Navarrete.

Assuming Ramirez continues to improve, he seems a class above Shimizu.

Boxing Challenge

WBC/WBO Junior Featherweight Titles. 12 Rds 

Stephen Fulton vs Naoya Inoue

Ramon Malpica: Inoue KO 8
TRS: Inoue Unanimous Decision

Vince Samano: Fulton Unanimous Decision

WBO Featherweight Title. 12 Rds

Robeisy Ramirez vs Satoshi Shimizu

R.L: Ramirez KO 10

TRS: Ramirez Unanimous Decision
V.S: Shimizu Unanimous Decision