A monster is moving up in weight, and a great challenge awaits him.
Naoye Inoue, former unified bantamweight champion and two-time Nonito Donaire conqueror, is set to go up to junior featherweight — and he will be fighting for two titles right off the bat.
The Japanese sensation has reportedly agreed to fight Stephen Fulton for the latter’s WBC and WBO belts in arguably one of the better fights that can be made in boxing. Inoue, nicknamed “The Monster,” and Fulton, called “Cool Boy,” are undefeated and are two of the best boxers today. The Monster, in fact, has been the longtime ruler of the bantamweight division, while Cool Boy has reigned supreme at junior featherweight since 2020.
Even before agreeing to the Fulton fight, Inoue had already relinquished his WBO, WBA, IBF, and WBC belts over the weekend in preparation for his move to junior featherweight. And with Fulton’s initially planned featherweight bout with rival Brandon Figueroa tabled for later, Inoue will now have the opportunity to become a four-division world champion in his very first fight at 122.
Inoue is among the most feared punchers in the sport, but Fulton is an elite tactician and one of boxing’s slickest boxers. So, it will be interesting to see how much of that power The Monster can carry over to junior featherweight, and whether or not Cool Boy’s boxing can neutralize Inoue’s aggression and explosiveness.
The Inoue-Fulton unification is being scheduled for May, and it could be one of several high-profile matches that may take place in the first six months of 2023. Also in the works is a potentially explosive showdown between unbeaten lightweights Gervonta “Tank” Davis and Ryan Garcia, tentatively set for April, and a unification bout between top-tier heavyweights Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, supposedly scheduled for late March or sometime in April.