Both Stephen Fulton (19-0, 8 KOs) and Michael Conlan (14-0, 8 KOs) have expressed an interest in doing battle in the near future, with Fulton's newly-acquired WBO junior-featherweight title presumably on the line.
Philadelphia's Fulton earned the belt with an impressive and comfortable decision victory over titleholder Angelo Leo on Saturday, handing Leo his first professional defeat.
Irish fighter Conlan responded to the result by saying on social media: “Keep the belt warm, keep the belt clean because I’m coming to take it soon.”
And this week Fulton told Boxing Social he is very confident of coming out on top if they were to meet.
“I don’t really have a response to that because I’m No.1 now," he said. "I expect that. I expect him to say those things.
"But I can say if we were to fight in 2021, he will be throwing up middle fingers again because he will not get this decision. They can’t beat me.”
It appears Conlan's best route to making a fight against Fulton happen is to pick up a belt of his own at 122lb, as Fulton now has his sights set on unifying the division.
“I want to be the first [ever] undisputed champion [at super-bantamweight/junior-featherweight],” continued Fulton in the same interview.
Murodjon ‘MJ’ Akhmadaliev currently holds the IBF and WBA ‘Super’ titles while Luis Nery is the WBC champion and the Mexican is Fulton's first target on the path to becoming undisputed.
“He’s a good fighter," said the American. "I put him No.2 behind me. I gotta put MJ in there, too. But I gotta put myself first. I’m No.1 in front of them all, I believe. They’re all great fighters though.”
Meanwhile, Conlan sat down with Boxing Scene and Fulton's name inevitably came up.
“It was a very good performance by Stephen Fulton, I expected him to win but he made it wider than I thought it would be,” Conlan said of the Jan. 23 bout.
“I think very highly of Stephen Fulton. He and Angelo Leo were both ranked ahead of me once I dropped down to the [122-pound] division so I knew I’d be fighting one of them for my first title.
“A fight with Fulton is first on my list and I’d like to fight him as soon as possible. I know that he just fought, he just won the title and I am due to come back soon. After that, I believe we can fight this summer.”