The exciting Stephen Fulton Jr. unified WBO and WBC super bantamweight titles with a majority decision victory over Brandon Figueroa in Las Vegas.
Figueroa claimed afterward that the triumph for Fulton was ‘Robbery of the Year.’
In a non-stop action fight between undefeated super bantamweight world champions, Fulton Jr. unified with a majority decision victory over Figueroa.
The event went live on SHOWTIME Saturday night in a Premier Boxing Champions event from Dolby Live at Park MGM.
PBC and Showtime set up this showdown earlier this year. Each fighter had captured a world title by defeating an undefeated opponent.
In January, Fulton (20-0, 8 KOs) bested Angelo Leo to capture the WBO belt, while Figueroa (22-1-1, 17 KOs) stopped Luis Nery in May to earn his WBC title.
The two champions put on an impressive display, combining to throw over 1,700 punches across 12 rounds, according to CompuBox.
“I was catching him in between every shot he was throwing,” said Fulton. “He was making it sloppy and rough.”
“I hurt him like five or six times,” said Figueroa.”I put the pressure on for the whole 12 rounds. And landed the cleaner shots and hurt him.
“I thought I only lost four rounds at the most.”
In a surefire “Fight of the Year” contender, it was Figueroa’s activity (1,060 punches thrown) against Fulton’s accuracy (37% connect rate) squaring off throughout a narrow fight.
Neither man was able to sustain momentum for long. In rounds four through seven, stats separated the fighters by just two punches landed (103 to 101 for Figueroa).
“I was landing a lot of clean shots,” said Fulton. “He was throwing wild shots that the fans were enjoying, but he was hitting my arms a lot.”
Each fighter landed nothing but power shots in a memorable sixth frame, with Figueroa connecting on 36 to Fulton’sFulton’sa frantic 10th round. Figueroa looked to have Fulton hurt after numerous flurries of power punches.
However, Fulton was able to recover in the final two rounds to win the 11th and 12th on two judges’ judges’ cards.
That final push helped Fulton hold on with the score of 116-112 from two judges overruling a 114-114 card.
After the fight, both fighters believed they had done enough to win and were open to battling again in a rematch.
ROBBERY OF THE YEAR
“It was “n amazing experience,” said Fulton. “The judges made their decision, and we can run it back.”
“It was” “he robbery of the year,” said Figueroa. “The fan who watched this live knows who won. I always come to fight, and I did that all night.”
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