Naoya Inoue dismantles and dethrones Stephen Fulton to become four-weight world champion
aoya Inoue produced a devastating stoppage of Stephen Fulton to become a four-weight world champion in Tokyo and further underline his status as a true boxing superstar.
‘The Monster’, a pound-for-pound great and one of the sport’s most fearsome and powerful knockout artists, became a unified champion in his very first fight since relinquishing historic undisputed status at bantamweight to move up a level to 122lbs, dethroning the previously undefeated American Fulton on home soil and snatching his WBC and WBO world titles.
Inoue, still unbeaten himself and now 25-0 with 22 knockouts, will now have his sights firmly set on becoming the undisputed king of another weight class by the end of 2023, with Marlon Tapales brought into the ring after Tuesday’s trademark triumph to talk up a major showdown later this year.
Filipino Tapales currently holds both the WBA and IBF titles at super-bantamweight after controversially outpointing Uzbekistani champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev in San Antonio back in April.
In Tuesday’s co-main event, Cuba’s two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez successfully defended his WBO featherweight title for the first time with an utterly dominant fifth-round stoppage of the overmatched Satoshi Shimizu.
The four-fight main card at Ariake Arena opened with a third-round knockout of Ronnie Baldonado by the unbeaten former kickboxer Yoshiki Takei, while Kanamu Sakama stopped Ryu Horikawa in the final throes of an entertaining eight-round tussle to also stay unbeaten and become the Japan youth champion at light-flyweight.
More to follow
Source link
