By Brian Webber: Naoya Inoue will need to find a way to score a knockout tonight against the larger-framed, highly skilled WBC & WBO super bantamweight champion Stephen Fulton tonight at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs) has been perfect thus far during his eleven-year professional career, capturing three division world titles and beating a lot of good fighters in that 24-fight run.
With that said, none of the guys that Inoue has beaten could hold a candle to Fulton, who is on another level than all of them, including Nonito Donaire, who is unquestionably the best guy Naoya has fought. Donaire was 39 in the first fight with Inoue, yet he gave him all kinds of problems.
Inoue’s most notable wins:
– Nonito Donaire
– Jason Moloney
– Paul Butler
– Emmanuel Rodríguez
– Juan Carlos Payano
– Jamie McDonnell
– David Carmona
– Antonio Nieves
– Omar Narvaez
– Adrián Hernández
Those guys aren’t on the same level as Fulton. Jason Moloney is a good defensive fighter, but he’s not the same kind of talent as Fulton, and the same applies to Emmanuel Rodriguez, Jaamie McDonnell, and Adrian Hernandez.
Tonight’s live boxing will be shown on ESPN+ at 4:30 a.m. The time of the fight between Inoue & Fulton is 7-ish.
Prediction for Inoue vs. Fulton:
This writer sees Fulton dragging Inoue the full twelve rounds but losing a unanimous decision. Inoue doesn’t possess the size to knock out a fighter like Fulton, who will stay on the move and dodge the shots from the Japanese star.
If Fulton can stay outside and avoid getting hit by Inoue, he can win this fight and make Naoya look bad.
Fulton can use his size
“If Fulton can smother him with the bigger built and bigger physical frame, he’ll be able to smother Inoue,” said Paulie Malignaggi on his Youtube channel.
“Inoue has good counter-punching; he’s devastating to the head and to the body, and ultimately, I see him catching Fulton with a KO in round nine or ten.”
Fulton would have to be stationary for Inoue to land his big shots, and he’s not going to do that. He’ll be on the move the entire night, making sure that thee doesn’t present an easy-to-hit target.
“Again, Inoue has shocked me in such a way where I thought his opponents would put up a good fight, and he’s knocked them out in one or two rounds,” said Inoue.
The guys that Inoue has been knocking out have been B-level opposition, all of them. Donaire was a great fighter, arguably superior to Donaire when he was young 10+ years ago, but by the time he fought the Japanese star, he was well past his prime.
You’ll see the same thing happen to Inoue if he sticks around until he’s 40, like Donaire. Inoue will get beaten up regularly if he fights past his prime, especially if he faces good opposition rather than the soft guys he’s been fighting.
“It’s absolutely amazing for a guy that started his career at 108 lbs and to see him now in his prime going up against the unified champion at 122 lbs,” said Joe Tessitore to Top Rank Boxing.
“You don’t hear a lot of people questioning whether it’ll carry up because he’s so thudding and he has concrete hands,” Joe continued about Inoue.
Inoue’s double-stacking on handwraps
“There has been controversy. Fulton’s corner raised pretty vehement objections. They said, ‘We’re behind enemy lines,’ and I don’t know how it’s resolved itself because of the time difference, but they object to the wraps that Inoue has been using,” said Mark Kriegel.
“They say the way that it’s been layered, it’s like a cast.”
“Double-stack,” said Tim Bradley about Naoya Inoue’s hand wraps.
