Fulton-Inoue clash gets a new date

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Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue’s move up to junior featherweight to challenge unified champion Stephen Fulton has a new date.

The fight has been rescheduled for July 25 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Ohashi Promotions announced on Wednesday in Japan. The fight will stream on ESPN+ in the early morning in the United States.

Inoue, the pound-for-pound star and three-division champion, and WBC/WBO 122-pound champion Fulton were scheduled to fight on May 7 at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan. However, on March 21 the fight was postponed because of what was announced only as an Inoue “training injury.”

Fight Freaks Unite later reported that Inoue had suffered a dislocated knuckle on his left hand, according to a source with knowledge of the injury. It was not deemed serious and the plan was always to reschedule the fight for a date in July.

“I’d like to completely recover from a hand injury so that I will show my best performance,” Inoue said in translated comments when the new date was announced. “We thank the Fulton camp and everyone involved for accepting the postponement and promise the best preparation and the best match. And I will definitely win.”

The fight looms as one of the best on the schedule between top fighters in their prime who both very much wanted to face each other for high stakes.

“The Monster” Inoue vacated the undisputed bantamweight championship in mid-January because he wanted to go after a title in a fourth weight division and Fulton was also anxious to test himself against an elite opponent and make the big money that will go with it since Inoue is a cash cow in Japan.

Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs), 29, knocked out Paul Butler in the 11th round of a one-sided battering to take his WBO bantamweight title on Dec. 13 to fully unify the 118-pound division. He became the first undisputed bantamweight champion of the three- or four-belt era an was the first undisputed champion in the division in 50 years — since Panama’s Enrique Pinder unified the WBC and WBA belts during the two-belt era in 1972.

Going into the fight with Butler, Inoue, who is 19-0 with 17 knockouts in world title bouts, said it would be his final bout in the division and he reiterated it afterward, and then followed through by giving up the titles.

Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs), 28, of Philadelphia, handily outpointed Angelo Leo to win the WBO title in January 2021 and then claimed a disputed majority decision over Brandon Figueroa 10 months later to take his WBC title in an action-packed 2021 fight of the year contender.

In Fulton’s only fight since unifying, he defended the belts by near-shutout decision against former unified titlist Daniel Roman this past June.

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