Naoya Inoue vs. Stephen Fulton reportedly agreed as one of the best fights boxing can have and is scheduled for May/June in Japan

Naoya Inoue has reportedly agreed a deal to challenge Stephen Fulton for the next WBC and WBO super bantamweight world titles.

Believed by many boxing fans to be one of the best fights the sport can do today, this match pits two of the best fighters in the lower weight classes against each other.

America’s Fulton is the defending champion, and Inoue is on the verge of becoming the four-division champion.

But Inoue is arguably the pair’s biggest draw, so the two are under contract to have a match in his home country of Japan in May or June, according to BoxingScene.

Inoue’s world title campaign began in just six professional fights in boxing’s second-smallest division.

In early 2014, just 20 years old, he knocked out Adrian Hernandez to win the WBC Light Flyweight (108 lbs) world title.

Inoue achieved his first weight gain after defending the belt once.

The Japanese superstar certainly could have won the world title in the flyweight (112 lbs) division if he wanted to, but he took the opportunity and jumped straight to super flyweight (115 lbs). Did.

Despite facing a bigger opponent than he was accustomed to, Inoue stopped Omar Narvaez in two rounds to win the WBO world title at the age of 21 and achieve a two-division title.

Sadly, he struggled to earn the coveted unification bout in the division and was promoted again three years later after seven successful defenses.

In his first fight at bantamweight (118 lbs), he once again proved that he could handle bigger opponents just fine, knocking out Jamie McDonnell in round one.

He then entered the World Boxing Super Series tournament and defeated Emmanuel Rodriguez and Nonito Donaire to become the unified IBF and WBA world champion, a three-division champion.

While the pandemic hampered his progress in 2020 and 2021, Inoue has become the undisputed figure and is determined to hold all four belts at bantamweight.

After Donaire won the WBC title last year, Inoue had a rematch with him and knocked him out to take the title.

Then, in his most recent fight, he achieved his goal as the undisputed champion by stopping WBO champion Paul Butler in December.

Now that his bantamweight stint is over, Inoue has announced plans to vacate all four belts and move up to super bantamweight (122 pounds).

There are currently only two super bantamweight champions.

Uzbekistan’s Murojon Ahmadaliev holds the WBA and IBF belts, while American Fulton holds the WBC and WBO belts.

Fulton has announced that he has passed Angelo Leo to win the WBO belt for the first time in 2021.

He then scored his first breakout win by diving straight into a unification match against Brandon Figueroa to win the WBC crown for Mexico.

In his most recent fight, Fulton defeated former WBA and IBF champion Daniel Roman to score another impressive points victory.

The 28-year-old American is a great boxer and will be the toughest challenge of Inoue’s career.

The 29-year-old Japanese destroyer remains the frontrunner for victory, but could return home as a bona fide star if Fulton retains the belt.