DOUBLE JEOPARDY
Inoue has already destroyed WBC boss Stephen Fulton at 122 pounds.
A PATH TO VICTORY? By Steve Kim
STEPHEN FULTON Record: 23-1 (8 KOs) Status: WBC featherweight titleholder/The Ring No. 4 at 126 pounds
When Naoya Inoue defends his undisputed junior featherweight crown versus Murodjon
Stephen Fulton claimed the vacant WBC crown by posting a dominant 12-round unanimous decision over old foe Brandon Figueroa in February. It was a real momentum boost for Fulton, who injected life back into his career after Inoue had put it on life support. In July 2023, Inoue dominated Fulton through seven rounds before scoring a pulverizing stoppage in the eighth, relieving the Philadelphia technician of two junior featherweight title belts in the process. While the rematch would take place in a new weight class, the manner of that defeat makes this one a tough sell. ANGELO LEO Record: 26-1 (12 KOs) Status: IBF featherweight titleholder/ The Ring No. 2 at 126 pounds Angelo Leo is the dark horse of the 126-pound division. The New Mexico native toiled in obscurity after losing the WBO junior featherweight title to Fulton in 2021 but came out of nowhere to dethrone then- featherweight division leader Luis Alberto Lopez with a brutal one-punch knockout last August. Nine months of inactivity is the last thing Leo needed following the biggest win of his career, because he needs to keep up the momentum if he’s to remain on the lips of fight fans. A razor-thin majority decision win over Japanese veteran Tomoki Kameda in May didn’t create the kind of buzz required to propel him into the Inoue sweepstakes.
California – was moved at an accelerated pace as he entered the pro game.
Akhmadaliev in September, a familiar face will be in the opposing corner: Joel Diaz. The former lightweight
He began his career boxing in six-round bouts and by his fourth outing was participating in scheduled 10-rounders. In just his eighth pro bout, he was paired against unified titleholder Danny Roman and won a 12-round split decision. Akhmadaliev made three defenses of the IBF and WBA belts before getting upset by Marlon Tapales via split nod in 2023. It was a costly defeat, because he lost more than two world titles – his immediate shot at Inoue (who would defeat Tapales later that year) went down the drain also. Without the titles, Akhmadaliev was just another contender, but a dangerous one. Now he gets his turn as the WBA mandatory challenger. Currently The Ring’s No. 2-rated junior featherweight, Akhmadaliev is a well-respected fighter. Like Luis Nery, who scored an opening- round knockdown against Inoue last May, he is a heavy-handed southpaw. Inoue has seemingly become a bit vulnerable to left hands in recent fights. After the Cardenas fight, which followed Inoue’s knockout wins over TJ Doheny and Ye Joon Kim, Diaz, who is no stranger to pulling upsets, is now even more confident of Akhmadaliev’s chances against the Japanese superstar. “MJ is a bit smarter [than Inoue’s recent competition] in the fact that he’s in, he’s out, he counters, and MJ has a little more volume [to his offense],” explained the respected trainer. And then there is the size factor. Akhmadaliev is a natural 122-pounder, while it’s well-known that Inoue began his career as a junior flyweight, the 108-pound division. It’s clear that he is reaching his threshold in terms of how much higher he can move up. “MJ is bigger; he’s bigger in every way,” said Diaz. “Inoue’s small. He was smaller than Ramon, and MJ’s bigger than Ramon. And he’s a lot slicker. He’s more experienced. He was an Olympian.”
title challenger, now a veteran trainer, led Ramon Cardenas into the ring against Inoue on May 4 in Las
Vegas. Cardenas, a heavy underdog, gave “The Monster” and his followers a scare when he scored a hard knockdown in the second round of their rousing battle at the T-Mobile Arena. The San Antonio, Texas, native was eventually stopped in the eighth round, but a point was made: This 122-pound version of Inoue is not infallible. As elite as Inoue is, the four-division titleholder makes mistakes that can be taken advantage of. As the action unfolded that evening, Diaz took mental notes. “I learned a lot,” Diaz told The Ring. “I learned that if Ramon would’ve had a little more experience, Ramon would’ve been successful in beating Inoue. But he needed that experience at the level that he didn’t have. For example, we trained Ramon that as soon as Inoue starts unloading on you, close the gap, clinch him, stop the action. He didn’t do it because he’s not used to that. “Also there was one round where I told him, ‘Go forward. Make him go back.’ When he made Naoya go back, he was successful, but he wasn’t throwing enough punches. His volume was low. I noticed that if you apply pressure on Inoue and just walk him back with volume of work – attacking the body, uppercuts, staying low and countering him – you can beat him. I learned a lot, honestly.” Akhmadaliev (13-1, 10 KOs), a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist from Uzbekistan, doesn’t have as many professional fights as Cardenas but is the more seasoned, battle-tested fighter at the world-class level. With his deep amateur pedigree, Akhmadaliev – like his Uzbekistani stablemates that train with Diaz in Indio,
“I believe, personally, that Inoue is the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world.” - Rudy Hernandez
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