Stephen Fulton Jr (23-1, 8 KOs) made it look easy, dethroning WBC featherweight champion Brandon Figueroa (25-2-1, 19 KOs), winning a 12-round unanimous decision in their rematch on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
This fight failed to live up to their previous encounter four years ago in 2021, but that wasn’t Fulton’s fault. Figueroa looked lost, missing with his punches and needlessly changing stances from orthodox to southpaw all night.
He must have thought he was to outbox Fulton, which was as wacky game plan. Figueroa should have focused on his power game, but he didn’t have pop in his shots to do that.
The Scores
116-112
116-112
117-111
“It feels good,” said Fulton. “I’m a champion again and for everyone who doubted me, just keep supporting me how you’ve been supporting me, whether it’s negative or positive.”
Figueroa fought the worst possible fight, trying to box but not using the pressure that Naoya Inoue had employed to knock out Fulton. Throughout the fight, he fought like he had no sense in his head and allowed Fulton to box without putting pressure on him.
This fight showed that Fulton has Figueroa’s number. He mentally owns him in the ring and would likely beat him in a third fight if they bothered to have one. They won’t not after this mismatch.
It’s going to be difficult for Stephen Fulton, 30, to hold onto his newly won WBC 126-lb title because he’s going to have to defend it against these killers if he wants to keep his belt for any length of time:
– Bruce Carrington
– Sulaiman Segawa
– Nathaniel Collins
