BRANDON FIGUEROA figures he would be best served by not allowing judges to determine the outcome of his rematch with Stephen Fulton.
Figueroa feels he did more than enough to defeat Fulton in their junior featherweight title fight nearly three years ago. Fulton defeated Figueroa by majority decision in their action-packed “Fight of the Year” candidate and advanced to eventually land a shot at another unified 122-pound champion, Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue.
The heavy-handed Inoue stopped Fulton in the eighth round in July 2023 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. Figueroa, 25-1-1 (19 KOs), predicted he will become the second opponent to defeat Fulton, 22-1 (8 KOs), inside the distance when they square off in the co-feature before unbeaten light heavyweights David Benavidez, 29-0 (24 KOs), and David Morrell Jr., 11-0 (9 KOs), square off in the 12-round main event of a PBC Pay-Per-View on Prime Video show February 1 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I’mma come to fight, but if the opportunity’s there, I’m not gonna leave it to the judges,” Figueroa said during a recent press conference at The Novo at L.A. Live. “Like I said, last time I did. They gave it to him. It’s all cool, but this time around, like I said, I’m just hungry, I want this fight. I wanna make a statement and, you know, hopefully everything goes well. I wanna challenge the fighter that he lost to – Inoue.
“So, that’s the – the main focus is, you know, winning this fight and hopefully, you know, getting the opportunity to go to Japan or maybe make it here in the U.S. But I’m not looking past Stephen Fulton. I’m not. We had a great fight and, like I said, I’m just happy, I’m content. I’m happy being here. This is what I was born to do and February 1st you’re gonna see that at 122 I hurt him three times. And at 126, I’mma put him away.”
Fulton scoffed at Figueroa’s suggestion that he would knock him out in their 12-round fight for Figueroa’s WBC featherweight title.
Carlos Castro floored Fulton in the fifth round of his first featherweight fight September 14 at T-Mobile Arena. Judges David Sutherland (96-93) and Don Trella (95-94) still scored their fight for Fulton, who won a split decision despite that judge Lisa Giampa gave Castro a 95-94 win on her card.
“People be forgetting who I am,” Fulton stated during the abovementioned press conference.” Like I really can do whatever I want in that ring, bro. And now it’s just like I gotta just remind motherf*ckers at this point. I really do. I only got one loss. Should I have moved out of that weight class? Yes. Can I knock him out? Yes, cuz he runs in with a lot – like he said, he’s aggressive. He’s coming forward, so it’s only one way he can fight. And I understand that he knows that, and I know that. And he’s saying it to us – one way out. So, it’s many ways I know I can beat this guy.”
Philadelphia’s Fulton fought toe-to-toe with Figueroa more often than expected when they went at it in November 2021 at Park MGM’s Dolby Live in Las Vegas. Judges Tim Cheatham and Dave Moretti scored Fulton a 116-112 winner over Figueroa, whereas David Sutherland scored their closely contested championship clash a draw (114-114).
Fulton retained his WBO junior featherweight title by winning that “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event. He also won the WBC super bantamweight championship from Figueroa, of Weslaco, Texas.
“February 2nd, I will be a two-weight division world champ, three-time world champ,” Fulton said. “And that’s how it’s gonna be. Much respect to him and his family, though. Like I said, I like Brandon. I like his confidence, I like his energy, everything. And I like what he’s standing for right now, but it’s gonna be no different than it was [in our first fight]. It’s gonna be no different, bro. Only difference it’s gonna be is I’mma make this shit look a little easier and a little bit more clear. Same thing Floyd [Mayweather] had to do with [Marcos] Maidana and them.
“When you run it back, the first one everybody [is yelling], ‘It was a close fight. He lost.’ Well, guess what we gonna do the second time around? Just make it clear, just make it clear. That’s all it is. Make it clear and put the stamp on it. Now the stamp on it is gonna be if I clip him or I hit him with a nice shot, and his ass go away. That’s gonna be the stamp. But right now, it’s all about making it clean and clear.”
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