Stephen Fulton: I Feel Like I'm Gonna Out-Class Inoue; I'm Smart!

Stephen Fulton Jr. believes his skills will be the deciding factor against Naoya Inoue in their upcoming 122-pound title fight.

Although he only has eight knockouts to his name, the unified 122-pound titleholder is a solid counterpuncher and feels that his intelligence will prevail over the three-division world champion in their spring bout.

“I feel like I’m just gonna show swag in this fight, show style, show class,” Fulton told Custer during a recent episode of his “Last Stand Podcast,” which is available on YouTube. “I feel like I’m gonna out-class him. I feel like the power’s not gonna matter to me. The power may matter to the fans, because they lookin’ at the records. But who have he fought of my significance, of my style? Who has he fought? We seen everyone comes forward to him and try and dog him out, and then get hit with some crazy shots. You never seen someone [against Inoue] who can mix it up like me. I have a style for every fighter. And it shows.”

Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs), of Japan, became boxing's first undisputed bantamweight champion of the four-belt era with an 11th-round knockout of Paul Butler (34-3, 14 KOs) last December 13 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. The 29-year-old will attempt to become a four-division titleholder when he challenges Philadelphia's Fulton for the WBC and WBO junior featherweight world championships.

Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs) has gone the 12-round distance in each of his past four fights, including a somewhat controversial majority decision victory over Brandon Figueroa (23-1-1, 18 KOs) in November 2021.

“Power don’t just win fights,” Fulton said. “I’m smart. How you think I got here? My skills, my mindset, my speed, my slickness. And guess what? Everybody say I don’t got power until they get in there, and these guys is not fighting everybody how they used to fight these guys. So, I feel like you can’t speak on power when everyone wear them eight-ounce gloves, everyone has power. You feel every punch.”