{"id":164297,"date":"2025-09-27T18:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T18:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/164297\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T18:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T18:19:08","slug":"naoya-inoue-defeat-was-best-thing-that-ever-happened-says-stephen-fulton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/164297\/","title":{"rendered":"Naoya Inoue Defeat ‘Was Best Thing That Ever Happened\u2019, Says Stephen Fulton"},"content":{"rendered":"

O\u2019Shaquie Foster<\/a> has seen a different Stephen Fulton<\/a> since Naoya Inoue knocked him out two years ago.<\/p>\n

Foster, 32, contended that Inoue viciously took something out of Fulton, who has won a pair of featherweight fights since being stopped in the eighth round of their July 2023 bout in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Fulton predictably disagreed with Foster\u2019s assessment during a virtual press conference recently. In fact, he believes losing to Inoue during their junior featherweight title unification bout taught invaluable lessons he’s since applied during a comeback that has seen him become champion in a second division.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia native decisively defeated Brandon Figueroa<\/a> in their 12-round rematch Feb. 1. Fulton expects to produce a comparable performance when he challenges Foster<\/a> for the WBC junior lightweight title Oct. 25 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say I\u2019ve gained more than I\u2019ve lost in my mental space,\u201d Fulton said. \u201cThat has allowed me to fight better, in my eyes. Me going into these fights in a different headspace, it\u2019s the best thing that happened to me. Me taking that loss was the best thing that ever happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Now, I don\u2019t walk around getting upset about things I can\u2019t control. I know how to control things now. I know what to expect out of people \u2014 in the ring, outside the ring, the media, the buildup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how to handle myself now. It gave me the sense of not really putting my energy into things that I can’t control and not caring. I gained a lot mentally and if my mental is perfect, then I fight perfect. So, I gained from it, I wouldn’t say I lost anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fulton, 31, did lose his WBC and WBO 122-pound titles to Inoue, the third-ranked fighter on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list<\/a>. He trailed Inoue (31-0, 27 KOs) on all three scorecards before the Japanese icon knocked him to the canvas twice in the eighth round and stopped him.<\/p>\n

Two years later, DraftKings\u2019 odds on Foster-Fulton are nearly even, in part because of how well Fulton fought against Figueroa on his way to winning the WBC featherweight title.<\/p>\n

Foster (23-3, 12 KOs), of Orange, Texas, hasn\u2019t fought since winning back his WBC belt from Brazil\u2019s Robson Conceicao (23-1, 10 KOs, 1 NC) on Nov. 2. He remains The Ring\u2019s No. 1 fighter in the 130-pound division.<\/p>\n

Fulton (23-1, 8 KOs) is listed fourth in The Ring\u2019s featherweight Top 10.<\/p>\n

Their bout is the co-feature of a PBC pay-per-view event. Sebastian Fundora<\/a> (23-1-1, 15 KOs), of Coachella, California, is set to defend his WBC junior middleweight title against Keith Thurman<\/a> (31-1, 23 KOs, 1 NC), a former WBA and WBC welterweight champ from Clearwater, Florida, in the main event.<\/p>\n

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"O\u2019Shaquie Foster has seen a different Stephen Fulton since Naoya Inoue knocked him out two years ago. Foster,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-164297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}