Stephen Fulton survives a rocky return with a split decision over Carlos Castro

In a hollow T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Stephen “Cool Boy Steph” Fulton didn’t look like he wanted to be there, and for portions of his fight against Carlos Castro, he didn’t look like he was.

Fulton won a 10-round split decision in his featherweight debut over Castro, narrowly scoring on the scorecards of David Sutherland (96-93) and Don Trella (95-94), who scored Lisa Giampa’s 95-94 scorecard for Castro dominated. .

Fulton, the former WBO and WBC junior featherweight titleholder, was handed a 14-month layoff following his eighth-round knockout loss to junior featherweight world champion Naoya Inoue last July 25 in Tokyo.

Fulton first fought as a featherweight and worked for the first time with trainer Bozy Ennis, the father, manager and trainer of his son, IBF welterweight titleholder Jaron “Boots” Ennis.

“I feel strong at this weight, I just had to get the ring rust out of the way,” Fulton said. “Castro is a great Mexican fighter, so shout out to him. My trainers told me to keep my left hand up because he was trying to get the right hand in over the top. I let it come through and I had to overcome adversity.

“I could have let my hands go a little more. I didn’t want to box too much because I felt so good, but I could have boxed more with my legs. I need to get back in the gym, work on my movement and come back for the world title.

“Sparring is the easy part, when you get in here with the pressure, that’s when it counts. The rust definitely played a part, but I’m back and I’m better.”

Early on, Fulton (22-1, 8 KOs) looked stiff, methodical, even though he worked well inside, but he was hit by Castro. He was taking shots to the body and head. He came back to his corner after the second round with a bloody nose.

Entering the fifth, Castro (30-3, 14 KOs) had landed 61 of 231 punches (27%) to Fulton’s 51 of 169 (30%), though at the time it looked like Fulton was getting the better of Castro had with his body work and harder punches.

Stephen Fulton had a rough featherweight debut but bounced back from a fifth-round knockdown to win a split decision over Carlos Castro (Photo courtesy of PBC).

Then, with 2:07 left in the fifth, Fulton was dropped for the third time in his career with a counter right hand to the forehead. Fulton battled the rest of the round and had the means to get out of the round.

Fulton, 30, recovered well. He returned to his corner, calm and composed, and admitted, “He (Castro) got that round.”

The knock down seemed to wake Fulton up. He raised his level the rest of the fight. Fulton started to back Castro up with his jab, and did well to counter Castro with the left hook. According to CompuBox stats, Fulton Castro landed 100 to 89. He got into Castro’s shoulder, wore him down and threw his right more consistently.

Then in the eighth, Castro had Fulton in trouble again. With 2:23 left in the eight count, a left hook followed by a short right hand tripped Fulton and tried to clinch.

But Castro couldn’t close, allowing Fulton to survive again – and move on.

This was not the way Fulton wanted to enter the featherweight division. Some would say he was given a gift.