Stephen Fulton had a tough featherweight debut, however obtained up from a fifth-round knockdown to win a split-decision over Carlos Castro (Photograph courtesy of PBC).
In a hole T-Cellular Enviornment in Las Vegas on Saturday night time, Stephen “Cool Boy Steph” Fulton didn’t appear like he needed to be there, and for parts of his battle in opposition to Carlos Castro, he didn’t seem to be he was there.
Fulton gained a 10-round split-decision in his featherweight debut over Castro, profitable by slender scores on the scorecards of David Sutherland (96-93) and Don Trella (95-94), which overruled Lisa Giampa’s 95-94 scorecard for Castro on the undercard of the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga pay-per-view.
Fulton, the previous WBO and WBC junior featherweight titlist, was coming off a 14-month layoff after his eighth-round knockout loss to junior featherweight world champion Naoya Inoue final July 25 in Tokyo.
Fulton was combating for the primary time as a featherweight, working for the primary time with coach Bozy Ennis, the daddy, supervisor and coach of his son, IBF welterweight titlist Jaron “Boots” Ennis.
“I really feel robust at this weight, I simply wanted to get the ring rust out of the best way,” Fulton mentioned. “Castro is a superb Mexican warrior, so shout out to him. My coaches had been telling me to maintain my left hand up as a result of he was attempting to get the best hand in excessive. I allowed it to get by and I needed to overcome adversity.
“I may have let my palms go just a little bit extra. I didn’t need to field an excessive amount of as a result of I felt so good, however I may have boxed with my legs extra. I’ve to get again within the fitness center, work on my motion and are available again for the world title.
“Sparring is the simple half, if you get in right here with the stress, that’s when it counts. The rust undoubtedly performed a component, however I’m again and I’m higher.”
Early on, Fulton (22-1, 8 knockouts) appeared stiff, methodical, although labored the within properly, however he was getting hit by Castro. He was taking photographs to the physique and head. He got here again to his nook after the second spherical with a bloody nostril.
Coming into the fifth, Castro (30-3, 14 KOs) landed 61 of 231 punches (27%) to Fulton’s 51 of 169 (30%), although at that stage, Fulton appeared to have the higher of Castro together with his inside physique work and more durable punches.
Stephen Fulton had a tough featherweight debut, however obtained up from a fifth-round knockdown to win a split-decision over Carlos Castro (Photograph courtesy of PBC).
Then, with 2:07 left within the fifth, Fulton was dropped for the third time of his profession with a counter proper hand on the brow. Fulton struggled the remainder of the spherical and had the wherewithal to get out of the spherical.
Fulton, 30, recovered properly. He returned to his nook calm and picked up, and admitted, “He (Castro) obtained that spherical.”
The knockdown appeared to get up Fulton. He raised his degree the rest of the battle. Fulton started backing Castro up together with his jab, and did properly countering Castro with the left hook. In response to CompuBox stats, Fulton outlanded Castro 100 landed punches to 89. He obtained inside Castro’s shoulder, breaking him down, and throwing his proper extra constantly.
Then within the eighth, Castro had Fulton in hassle once more. With 2:23 left within the eight, a left hook, adopted by a brief proper hand had Fulton stumbling and attempting to clinch.
However Castro failed to shut permitting Fulton to outlive as soon as extra—and transfer on.
It was not the best way Fulton needed to enter the featherweight division. Some would say he was given a present choice.
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been working for Ring Journal/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Affiliation of America.
Observe @JSantoliquito [twitter.com]
