Stephen Fulton retains his titles with unanimous decision over ex-champion Daniel Roman

MINNEAPOLIS — Stephen Fulton Jr. was very much in the moment on Saturday night after retaining his WBC and WBO super bantamweight titles with an unanimous decision over Daniel Roman at the Armory in downtown Minneapolis.

Responding to a question during a postfight interview inside the ring, the West Philadelphia native (21-0) made it clear to an international TV audience and the sellout crowd of 4,695 that he didn’t need the win over the former WBA and IBF champion to cement his place among the “pound for pound, 10 best fighters in the world.”

Minutes later, while meeting with reporters, Fulton’s championship belts were on full display as he described how his plan to “keep it clean” had worked to perfection, relying on his elusiveness and accurate left jab to prevent Roman from doing any damage.

But it wasn’t long before Fulton’s focus turned to the immediate future. More specifically, the fighter who took the WBA and IBF titles from Roman in January 2020, Murodjon Akhmadaliev.

“You already know what’s next,” Fulton said. “I got to finish this up.”

Akhmadaliev will look to defend his titles in a fight later this month. “If MJ can take care of business,” Fulton said, he’s confident a winner-take-all showdown can be arranged.

But Fulton is a fighter with options. Should a meeting with Akhmadaliev fail to materialize, he said he is open to the possibility of moving up from 122 pounds to 126. Asked who he would be interested in fighting at that weight, Fulton said, “Whoever’s got the belt.”

He added that a rematch with Brandon Figueroa, whom he defeated in a 12-round decision on Nov. 27 for the WBC title, is also a possibility. That fight, he said, would be at 126 pounds.

As for when he expects to be back in the ring, Fulton said he definitely will fight again before the end of the year.

“I’m thinking September or October,” he said. “I feel I want to work on a lot more things as well in the ring. More so my head movement, work on my power a lot more. I feel like when I move up I’ll bring the power a lot more with me. This 122 will drain you a little bit.”

As for Saturday night, Fulton admittedly started slow, but his plan to keep his distance from Roman, specifically to avoid being tagged by one of Roman’s uppercuts, played into his approach.

Fulton made mention of the Minneapolis crowd being quiet, but his cautiousness had something to do with that. The card’s co-main event featured WBA super middleweight champion David Morrell Jr. in his adopted hometown, and the fans were raucous during Morrell’s victory via TKO.

“I wanted to see if he was going to apply the pressure,” Fulton said of Roman, “and make the right adjustments. Feel him out in the early rounds. He kept the same speed, but my trainers wanted me to keep it clean.”

By the middle rounds of the 12-round fight, Roman began to tire, and Fulton’s dominance was on full display.

“He’s not really an aggressive fighter,” Fulton said. “He’s a slow starter as well, and I paid attention to that. He didn’t really land that one uppercut. He let some of them go, but I don’t think he really landed those.”

Afterward, Roman (29-4-1) offered kudos for Fulton’s boxing prowess.

“Fulton knew how to use his distance,” he said. “It was hard for me to adjust to his distance because he was boxing. He came in and came out. He changed his style, so it was hard for me to adjust.”

Two of the judges had Fulton winning all 12 rounds; the third gave one round to Roman.

“I honestly don’t give him any rounds,” Fulton said. “Even in the rounds when he landed a couple of good shots, I would come right back and close the round out. So giving him a round, they were just being generous.”

By the numbers, Fulton landed 36.2% of his punches to 16.8% for Roman. Fulton landed 45.7% of his power punches to 18.5% for Roman.

“I think this fight proves who the best 122-pound fighter in the division is,” Roman said. “Fulton did that tonight; he proved it. I wish him the best and I hope he goes and achieves what I couldn’t achieve. Go become undisputed.”

That definitely sounds like a plan to Fulton.

On the undercard, Alfredo Santiago scored a first-round knockout of Philadelphia’s Karl Dargan, who lost for only the second time in 22 professional fights. The KO came 1:21 into the bout after Santiago hit Dargan with a left hook. Dargan got up, but Santiago (14-2, 6 KOs) hit Dargan (20-2, 10 KOs) with several more impact punches as Dargan backed into his own corner.