The Stephen Fulton and Naoya Inoue fight has been rescheduled for July 25th, 2023, at the Ariake Arena, Tokyo, Japan.
Fulton (with a record of 21 wins and eight knockouts) was putting his WBC/WBO junior featherweight titles on the line, as Inoue, who previously held the undisputed bantamweight championship, moved up to try and win a championship in a fourth weight category.
Following his victory over Paul Butler in the eleventh round by knockout, Inoue became the first boxer from Asia to achieve undisputed champion status during the four-belt era.
In contrast, Fulton’s most recent fight, following his unification victory, saw him successfully defend his belts with victory against Daniel Roman.
New date set for postponed fight between @naoyainoue_410 & unified junior featherweight champion @coolboysteph. Read my story and sign up for my #boxing newsletter: https://t.co/PPjRoDwEvW #FultonInoue @trboxing
— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) March 29, 2023
The scheduled bout between the two was supposed to take place on May 7th, 2023. Unfortunately, on March 21st, 2023, the fight was delayed due to an injury sustained by Inoue during training, which turned out to be a left knuckle that was dislocated.
“I’d like to completely recover from a hand injury so that I will show my best performance. 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,” Inoue said.
Following the breakdown in talks with Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, coupled with the failure to make Errol Spence vs. Terence Crawford, this is one fight fans will get to see.