Naoya Inoue’s (24-0) anticipated fight with WBC & WBO super-bantamweight Stephen Fulton (21-0) has been postponed due to injury on behalf of the former undisputed 118lb champion. Inoue, who defeated Paul Butler in December of last year to add the IBF bantamweight title to become undisputed, was due to face the unbeaten Fulton on May 7th in Yokohama, Japan.
Reporting from ESPN’s Mike Coppinger did not give any specifics regarding the injury other than that the contest is likely to be rescheduled for the summer.
Fulton, who has held to the WBC & WBO titles since 2021, claimed the WBO first in January of that year by defeating Angelo Leo before following up with a victory over Brandon Figueroa in November (2021) to add the WBC world title to his WBO crown.
Inoue, in turn, has won world titles at light flyweight, super flyweight and the undisputed bantamweight world championship following his most recent win over Paul Butler. Inoue following his victory over Butler, immediately set his sights on success at super-bantamweight and targeted Fulton and Murodjon Akhmadaliev who holds the IBF and WBA world super-bantamweight titles.