Stephen Fulton vs. Brandon Figueroa 2 Rematch On December 14th

Stephen Fulton (22-1, 8 KOs) will challenge WBC interim featherweight champion Brandon Figueroa (25-1-1, 19 KOs) in a rematch of the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Lamont Roach Jr. undercard on December 14 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The event is expected to be shown on PBC Prime Video PPV.

Fulton, 30, defeated Figueroa by 12-round majority decision two years ago on November 27, 2021 in a unification fight at Super Bantamweight in Las Vegas. Figueroa lost his WBC 122 lb title to WBO champion Fulton in that contest.

Brandon Figueroa Pros:

– Strength
– Aggression
– Youth
– Ken

Figueroa is in the prime of his career at 27, and his youth, will and power may be too much for ‘Cool Boy Steph’ Fulton, who doesn’t look like the same fighter he was three years ago when he fought. Brandon in 2021.

Philadelphia native Fulton’s eighth-round knockout loss to ‘Monster’ Naoya Inoue may have reduced his punch resistance. Inoue hit some chips out of Fulton in their fight last year in July 2023.

It was a fight that could easily have gone the other way as Figuera consistently landed the harder and cleaner shots. The judges scored it as follows:

– 116-112 – Fulton
– 116-112 – Fulton
– 114-114

Fulton recently moved up to 126 after losing his WBC and WBO super-bantamweight titles in an eighth-round knockout loss to Naoya Inoue on July 25, 2023 in Tokyo.

In Fulton’s featherweight debut, he defeated Carlos Castro by a 10-round split decision last month on September 14 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The hard-hitting Castro dropped Fulton in the fifth round, but came back to defeat the tiring fighter in the second half of the bout. It wasn’t an impressive performance by Fulton, who showed that his strike resistance might not be up to the mark for the 126-lb division, and he doesn’t have the power to dominate in this weight class like he did at 122 not. Fulton is ranked #1 WBA, #3 WBO, and #4 WBC at featherweight.

Figueroa looked much better in his recent fight since moving up to featherweight and beating fighters:

– Jesse Magdaleno – TKO 9 last May
– Mark Magsayo – UD 12 in March 2023
– Carlos Castro – TKO 6 in July 2022

Should Fulton move back to 122?

If Stephen Fulton loses the rematch against Figueroa by knockout, he should consider moving back down to super bantamweight because he doesn’t hit hard enough to be a top contender at 126. Additionally, many powerful fighters at featherweight will take advantage of Fulton’s weak chin and do the same thing to him that Inoue did.