Inoue vs Fulton LIVE: Latest boxing fight updates and results

If you asked the average person to name their favourite day of the week, they would not name Tuesday. Monday, while generally considered to be loathed, is actually enjoyed by many for the buzz it brings; Wednesday is ‘hump day’; Thursday is the new Friday; and Friday ushers in the weekend. But Tuesday? What does it actually offer? Fifty times out of 52, not very much – I’ll grant you that. But twice a year, Tuesdays are transformed. And they are transformed by Naoya Inoue.

Sometimes, the best boxer in the world fights in Tokyo, as he did this week and in December. Sometimes, he fights in Saitama, as he did last June. He has also fought in Yokohama, and even Las Vegas and Glasgow. But nowadays, the constant is that Naoya Inoue fights on Tuesdays. It is not a day on which we are accustomed to seeing the pageantry and ceremony of world title fights, but if you haven’t joined the club already, you will need to start navigating that foreign feeling and turning on your TV, opening that fresh tab on your laptop, or turning your phone horizontally. You need to tune in.

You need to tune in because, twice a year on Tuesdays, Inoue produces the closest thing to boxing mastery that you will see. That is written with the knowledge that one of the fights of this generation – Errol Spence Jr vs Terence Crawford – awaits this weekend. In future, don’t wait for Saturdays. The best boxer in the world fights on Tuesdays.

Comment:

Fulton, per Talksport: “I’m not feeling bad, because I’m a champion no matter what.

“I’m very disappointed in my performance, but I can’t allow that to dictate who I am as a person.

“I went out like a man, so I hold my head up like a man.”

Even as he made his walk in the Ariake Arena, Naoya Inoue exuded the air of a boxer who may just retire unbeaten – just moments before facing what should have been his toughest test yet.

The Japanese has been No 1 on Indy Sport’s pound-for-pound list for some time now, with the best knockout percentage (22 from 25 unanswered wins) of any fighter in those rankings, and he does not look like he will be displaced.

If he is not at the top of your list, or near that summit, or even in your rankings at all, then chances are you haven’t tuned in to Tuesdays With Naoya Inoue.

Stephen Fulton – a talented, accomplished, unbeaten boxer fighting a smaller man – frankly looked scared against Naoya Inoue.

The risk of entering Inoue’s range, of inviting the challenger to unload his offence, seemed too great, even to a man who has beaten every boxer to have stood across from him. The thing is, Fulton was right to be scared. Despite Inoue’s natural weight disadvantage, the home fighter absorbed Fulton’s best shots – on the rare occasions that they landed – and fired back with faster, more spiteful strikes.

In Tokyo today, there was a strong argument that Fulton did not win a single round. And after seven of them, it became a moot point anyway.

Inoue jabbed the champion in the gut, then speared him with a right cross to the face – seemingly before his left fist had even been retracted. Fulton, fighting outside his native US for the first time, might as well have been back home; it did not matter, because he did not know where he was.

As he stumbled back in a disorientating daze, Inoue showed no mercy. The very moment that Inoue realised he had Fulton hurt, he pulverised the champion with a left hook. To call it clinical would be fair, if such a word did not ignore the ugliness of the blow.

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Inoue is an example of the best that boxing has to offer, and that is written in full knowledge that one of the fights of this generation – Errol Spence vs Terence Crawford – takes place on Saturday.

Inoue pummeled him.

The speed is blistering.