On this Tuesday night, the “Monster” of the ring, Naoya Inoue (25-0, 22 KOs), squared off against WBC & WBO super bantamweight champion, Stephen Fulton (21-1, 8 KOs) at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
All in all, Inoue’s commanding performance led to an eighth-round knockout in a fight that saw Fulton outmatched at every turn. Fulton, dropped twice in the eighth round, saw the fight called to a halt after the second knockdown, giving Inoue a decisive victory and becoming a four-division champion.
Inoue controlled the fight with a powerful jab, landing punch after punch against the sluggish-looking Fulton. Fulton’s efforts to rally in the sixth round only saw him taking heavy punishment from the Japanese star. In the eighth round, a right-hand punch stunned Fulton, with a follow-up left to the head sending him to the canvas. Despite Fulton’s valiant effort to recover, Inoue didn’t relent, landing ten consecutive headshots, resulting in Fulton sinking to the canvas and the referee halting the fight.
Official fight highlights: Watch on Youtube
In the co-main event of the evening, WBO featherweight champion Robeisy Ramirez (13-1, 8 KOs) put on a show of his own. Ramirez crushed Satoshi Shimizu (11-2, 10 KOs), stopping him in the fifth round. Throughout the first three rounds, Ramirez appeared to be toying with Shimizu, only to explode with a late flurry in the fourth round that nearly ended the fight.
In the fifth round, Ramirez, targeting the tall 5’11” Shimizu, relentlessly bludgeoned Shimizu with uppercut after uppercut, sending him to the canvas. Shimizu, nose gushing blood and looking worse for wear, was unable to hold off Ramirez’s relentless assault, leading referee Ramon Pena to step in and call an end to the bout at 1:08 of round five.
Official fight highlights: Watch on Youtube
Image Credit: Naoki Fukuda