Naoya Inoue vs. Stephen Fulton Jr. Has Been Postponed

The story has been updated with this latest release from Top Rank.

Stephen Fulton’s WBO/WBC junior featherweight world title defense against Naoya Inoue — originally scheduled for Sunday, May 7, at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan — has been postponed due to a training injury suffered by Inoue.

Fulton-Inoue will be rescheduled for July, with a new date to be announced in due course.The main event and undercard bouts will stream live and exclusively in the U.S. on ESPN+. 

Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs) will make his third world title defense and second as a unified champion since defeating Brandon Figueroa in one of the best fights of 2021. Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs), the sport’s pound-for-pound king, is a three-division world champion who is making his junior featherweight debut after defeating Paul Butler last December to become the undisputed bantamweight world champion.

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Former undisputed bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (24-0) has suffered an injury while preparing for a unified super bantamweight fight against Stephen Fulton Jr. (21-0) which was scheduled for May 7 in Japan. Mike Coppinger tweeted about the injury within the last hour.

Fulton-Inoue for the unified 122-pound championship is in the process of being rescheduled for this summer, sources said. The nature of the injury isn't clear, but it wasn't deemed serious enough for a lengthy postponement:https://t.co/mya3852b0m https://t.co/BsEXTRURlD

— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) March 21, 2023

Although this is one of the most anticipated fights on the boxing calendar, Fulton Jr. tweeted out “We got a date relax It’s still happening” followed by another tweet saying “I got y’all chill” with a ninja and scooter emoji following the message text.

We got a date relax it’s still happening

— 100 Billion (@coolboysteph) March 21, 2023

I got y’all chill🥷🏾🛴

— 100 Billion (@coolboysteph) March 21, 2023

This postponement may be a blessing in disguise as the fight would have been hours after Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs. John Ryder which will stream live from Mexico on DAZN. Since it is being reported postponed and not cancelled, the fans should cool their jets a bit and understand that these things happen in boxing and that we are still getting the fight; just at a later date. Big Fight Weekend will continue to monitor this story as it develops.

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