{"id":37335,"date":"2022-06-05T06:17:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T06:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/stephen-fulton-has-sights-set-on-murodjon-akhmadaliev-naoya-inoue-after-defense-vs-daniel-roman\/"},"modified":"2022-06-05T06:17:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T06:17:08","slug":"stephen-fulton-has-sights-set-on-murodjon-akhmadaliev-naoya-inoue-after-defense-vs-daniel-roman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/stephen-fulton-has-sights-set-on-murodjon-akhmadaliev-naoya-inoue-after-defense-vs-daniel-roman\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Fulton has sights set on Murodjon Akhmadaliev, Naoya Inoue after defense vs.  Daniel Roman"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\"><span class=\"timestamp\" data-behavior=\"date_time\" data-date=\"2022-06-04T17:42:00Z\"><span class=\"time\" data-dateformat=\"time1\" data-showtimezone=\"true\">1:42 PM ET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li>\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Mike Coppinger<span>ESPN <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Stephen Fulton has his sights set on the undisputed 122-pound championship.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;ll continue his quest toward a meeting with fellow two-belt champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev with a fight vs.  Danny Roman on Saturday In Minneapolis (9 pm ET, Showtime).<\/p>\n<p>A pair of victories for Fulton, who fights out of Philadelphia, could land him the sort of matchup that defines legacies.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Naoya Inoue of Japan, ESPN&#8217;s No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer, meets Nonito Donaire on Tuesday (main event at 8 am ET on ESPN +) for three 118-pound titles, and Fulton feels a matchup with &#8220;The Monster&#8221; makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s far-fetched; I believe it&#8217;s realistic if [Inoue] comes up in time [before I move to 126 pounds], &#8220;Fulton, 27, told ESPN.&#8221; I don&#8217;t shy away from big fights.  A lot of people wanna see [me vs. Inoue];  a lot of people wanna talk about that as well.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Had I been more known like Inoue,&#8221; he added, &#8220;I&#8217;d be on that [pound-for-pound] list. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, much has to happen before the bout can even come close to fruition.<\/p>\n<p>First, Fulton must turn back the challenge of Roman (29-3-1, 10 KOs), who is a 4-1 underdog, per Caesars Sportsbook, but that&#8217;s only because of how highly regarded Fulton is.  The 32-year-old from Los Angeles made four defenses of his 122-pound title before he dropped a split decision to Akhmadaliev in a 2020 unification.<\/p>\n<p>Roman is a volume puncher, and Fulton, too, has unloaded more than 1,000 punches in a single fight.  He did so in his title-winning effort against Angelo Leo in January 2021 and then delivered another thrilling performance in a split-decision victory over Brandon Figueroa in November.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I purposely will go in there and want to be in those types of fights because those guys had said that I don&#8217;t have that in me, but I don&#8217;t have anything to prove at this point,&#8221; said Fulton, ESPN&#8217;s No 1 junior featherweight.  &#8220;&#8230; I have to save some of me for myself; I was in two [grueling fights] back to back. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>He could be saving himself for perhaps his toughest test to date, a potential clash with Akhmadaliev later this year for all four junior featherweight belts.  The Uzbek must first defeat Ronny Rios in a rematch on June 25.<\/p>\n<p>If Fulton does land the Akhmadaliev fight, he plans to move up four pounds to featherweight afterward unless a bout with Inoue can be made.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>    .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1:42 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Stephen Fulton has his sights set on the undisputed 122-pound championship. He&#8217;ll continue his quest toward a meeting with fellow two-belt champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev with a fight vs. Danny Roman on Saturday In Minneapolis (9 pm ET, Showtime). A pair of victories for Fulton, who fights out of Philadelphia, could &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/stephen-fulton-has-sights-set-on-murodjon-akhmadaliev-naoya-inoue-after-defense-vs-daniel-roman\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Stephen Fulton has sights set on Murodjon Akhmadaliev, Naoya Inoue after defense vs.  Daniel Roman<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11],"tags":[3700,17395,17396,17397,146,17394],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/a4.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=\/photo\/2020\/0730\/r725306_1296x729_16-9.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}