On July 25, 2023, the 29-year-old WBC and WBO super-bantamweight world champion, Stephen Fulton Jr. (21-0, 8 KOs), faced a 30-year-old Japanese boxer Naoya Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs), in a title defense fight.
Fulton Jr. came in to the fight on a 21-fight win streak with a 38% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 1 year, 1 month, and 21 days. Inoue was on a 24-fight win streak with a 87% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 7 months and 12 days.
Naoya Inoue stopped the champion via TKO in the 8th round of the 12-round world-title fight, and is crowned the new WBC and WBO super-bantamweight champion. Inoue improves his record to 25-0 (22 KOs), while Fulton Jr. adds a loss to his record at 21-1.