Naoya Inoue dominated and stopped Stephen Fulton Jr to win the WBC and WBO junior featherweight titles, turning into a four-division world champion.
Inoue (25-0, 22 KO) put Fulton away at 1:14 of the eighth spherical, ending what had been a reasonably one-sided efficiency but once more from a person who has merely turn into true must-see TV it doesn’t matter what time of day he’s preventing the place you might be on the planet.
Fulton was down as soon as, onerous, previous to the stoppage, and tried to combat on, however Inoue’s a great finisher (that is an understatement), and he completed issues off shortly after.
The 30-year-old Inoue fairly effectively managed the combat from the opening spherical, whereas Fulton (21-1, 8 KO) simply couldn’t get any offense going in any respect, an enormous credit score to Inoue’s nonetheless sometimes-underrated pure boxing ability, together with the heavy arms and velocity that made the 29-year-old Philadelphia native tentative to have interaction a lot.
Fulton was, merely, each out-boxed and overpowered right here, which has been the overall case for Inoue in his profession, as he’s risen from 108 lbs now to 122, dominating at each division he’s graced. Fulton got here into this combat the highest canine within the sport at this weight, and Inoue simply ran him over, actually.
In brief, what we’re seeing here’s a genuinely particular fighter, and when you nonetheless should be advised “the hype is actual” in any case these years, perhaps let this be the final time. The hype has been actual for a very long time.
Fulton vs Inoue highlights
Undercard highlights and outcomes
Robeisy Ramirez TKO-5 Satoshi Shimizu (1:08): It wasn’t aggressive, however the 37-year-old Shimizu gave this all the things he had, and I wouldn’t be shocked if this was the ultimate combat from the 2012 bronze medalist. He was simply completely outgunned by Ramirez (13-1, 8 KO), who was discovering it fairly simple to land proper from the beginning. Shimizu (11-2, 10 KO) was down within the fifth, spit some blood, and tried to proceed, however the referee well and mercifully stepped in as Robeisy went to unload once more.
The combat was all Ramirez, and he actually has a declare to being the most effective featherweight on the planet. It’s time to cease speaking about his professional debut loss as a primary a part of his story. It occurred 4 years in the past, and he’s turned out to be who we thought he was coming into the professionals.
Kanamu Sakama TKO-8 Ryu Horikawa (2:40): Sakama, a 20-year-old junior flyweight, stays undefeated to this point at 8-0 (7 KO), however this stoppage got here with simply 20 seconds left within the combat. That’s some credit score to Horikawa (3-2-2, 1 KO), who is healthier than his file, and in addition in all probability owed to younger Sakama really want to get some helpful rounds in, too, he’s not gonna rise up the degrees and bowl everybody over in a couple of rounds, so that you want fights like this. And when he needed to shut the present, he made it occur, pouring on some warmth within the seventh and ending within the eighth. A younger fighter to remember at 108.
Yoshiki Takei KO-3 Ronnie Baldonado (1:08): Fairly easy win for the 27-year-old bantamweight Takei, who goes to 7-0 (7 KO) with the physique shot stoppage. Baldonado falls to 16-5-1 (9 KO).
