This Saturday night Stephen Fulton faces Daniel Roman in the main event at the Armory in Minneapolis on Showtime. The pound-for-pound lists of late have been all the rage on boxing twitter as more and more boxers achieve greatness at their respect weight classes. The unified champ Stephen Fulton is at minimum knocking on the door for P4P and with another victory can add to his every growing resume. Standing across the ring from ‘Cool Boy Steph’ is the established vet and former unified 122-pound champion Daniel Roman.
The last 4 opponents for Stephen Fulton have come against unbeaten foes totaling 9 in just 20 fights. The competition for Fulton has increased every time out and now he gets to prove himself versus Roman a guy who took ‘MJ’s’ best shots losing by split-decision. Fulton is a very capable fighter whether he on the outside, at range landing flashy punches in combination or in the trenches willing to grind it out.
After a rocky start to his career losing twice along with a draw, Daniel Roman put the pedal to the metal by facing 6 separate undefeated fighters in route to becoming a unified champion. A few things to mention in his most recent loss to MJ Akhmadaliev, Roman was technically coming off an injury and had a shortened 6-week camp which can make a difference especially when facing stiff competition. Not to make excuses but those do seem like legit reasons why he didn’t look his best. Of course MJ had a lot to do with that as he used his quick hands and feet in the first half turning more of the aggressor in the second half. Watching that fight back again recently I did give MJ a tight yet more comfortable victory than my first time scoring it back in January 2020.
Roman is a solid technical boxer with a sturdy guard and for the most part fundamental sound. He doesn’t have great power but he can most defiantly pop kind of like Fulton. Roman did a pretty good job attacking MJ’s body with both hands. He wasn’t able to cut the ring off successfully and will need to faint with his jab in order to land it consistently and to set up other punches. Another thing that’s evident when watching a Danny fight is his bad habit of reaching with his shots at times.
Fulton will need to try to emulate MJ’s performance in the opening frames as much as possible and Stephen is fully capable of doing just that. Cool Boy Steph has a stiff and effective jab paired with quick scoring combos while circling Roman will allow Fulton to bank the early rounds. Stephen could push the pace in the 2nd half like MJ but my guess is he will stay at range and engaged in some inside the trenches stuff. That did get him in a bit of trouble in his last fight with Brandon Figuoera along with his high work-rate, those two things saw Fulton fade a bit down the stretch. Of course Fig’s strength is pushing forward throwing over 1000 punches a fight. Speaking of inside action, it speaks volumes that Fulton was able to keep pace when it comes to body punching in his majority-decision victory over Figueora.
This fight will be fought at range for large gaps of the rounds given the style each fighter excels at. Whoever is able to win this main event could be in line for a possible undisputed opportunity against Murodjon Akhmadaliev the man with the other two belts at super bantamweight. Look for this to be a two-way fight once Roman settles in after a couple of rounds. To my fellow degenerates Roman is a super live dog sitting at a +400 and up so you may won’t to put a flyer out on him, just saying. Fulton’s all-around skill-level and his three-prong attack (if you will) on the move, at range, and on the inside will prove to be too much for Roman to overcome. 8-4 or 7-5 seems to be about right in favor of Stephen Fulton.
My Official Prediction is Stephen Fulton by Unanimous Decision.
Side Note: David Morrell Jr. fights in the co-feature and if successful rumors are swirling that David Benivadez would be next according to senior writer Jake Donovan of boxingscene.com.
Written by Chris Carlson Host/Producer of The Rope A Dope Radio Podcast Available at www.blogtalkradio.com/ropeadoperadio Follow on Twitter @RopeADopeRadio