Two of boxing’s best fighters from the past 50 years, Andre Ward and Roy Jones Jnr, have issued a dire warning to weight-troubled former unified junior-featherweight and featherweight champion Stephen Fulton.

Philadelphia’s Fulton, 23-2 (8 KOs), missed weight last week for his scheduled July 25 bout in Australia against Liam Wilson by 6.5 pounds, forcing the 11th-hour cancellation of what was supposed to be the co-main event to Tim Tszyu’s PPV victory over Errol Spence. 

Wilson and his team had already granted Fulton’s fight-week request to change from the original 130-pound junior-lightweight limit to a 133-pound catchweight, and yet, Fulton still came in hugely overweight.

This was the second consecutive time missing weight for 32-year-old Fulton. In his previous fight, in December 2025, Fulton came in two pounds over for a junior-lightweight title shot against O’Shaquie Foster and ended up losing by unanimous decision.  

“Missed opportunity again,” said Ward on the show he and Jones co-host, “Hall of Game.” “Missed training camp. You spent money, you sacrificed, long flight across the world, and then that’s an even longer flight coming back. Steven Fulton is leaving millions of dollars on the table. He’s burning bridges because people are not going to want to take the risk on him. And there’s this window that you have as a fighter to be the best you can be, because of your age or where you’re at in your career. You got that window of youth and earning power. And the mistake that a lot of fighters make is they think that that window is going to be there as long as they want it to be there.”

“It’s apparent that it’s time for you to either move up and wait or get out of boxing,” agreed Jones, “because with today’s knowledge, with the way they do things today, in today’s time with the UFC guys showing you how to do whatever is necessary to make weight now, there’s no way that nobody that’s capable of making a certain weight class should not be able to make that weight.

“If he doesn’t tighten up, he’s going to ruin his own career. And he has a great career because everybody wants to see him still. But you do this two times, it gets pretty hard. And if you remember, one of my favorite fighters coming up too for the left liver shot was (former WBA light heavyweight champion) Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. He was the first person I saw not make weight in a fight and his career kind of went downhill after that. And he only did it once. You’ve (Fulton) done it now twice. You’ve got to you got to look at yourself and you better check the history of the game because when people see you don’t make weight, they feel like you not you’re not invested in your own self.

Ward also says that Fulton’s explanation that he simply “stopped sweating,” and couldn’t lose another ounce isn’t a valid excuse.

“…Boxing is hard enough when you’re doing what you’re supposed to do, when you’re checking all the right boxes. Why would I get into a fight and make it harder for me? Oh, I couldn’t make weight and you know, it was hard to sweat. I know it was hard to sweat because you walked around too heavy. You didn’t start trying to get your weight together until you went into camp and you waited too long and then you tried to crash it off. So yes, your body is saying, ‘I don’t like that.’ Your body’s not going to respond the right way. But even if you did make weight, your performance wasn’t going to be what it was supposed to be.

“…You got to show them that you can be a professional and then finish your career out the right way. Because bro, you’re going to need this money when you retire. Don’t mess your money up no more, bro. I didn’t like that for you, ‘Scoot.’ You’re better. You’ve been away from your family sacrificing in training camp to not fight? You did a roundtrip flight to Australia and didn’t come home with a bag? I’m disappointed. We expect better from you. Tighten up. You’re a heck of a talent, but if you got talent with no discipline, you’re not going to be everything you’re supposed to be and you will regret this someday.”