Things are heating up right now in the super bantamweight division.
Murodjon Akhmadaliev (10-0, 7 KOs) handled business on Friday, battering and bruising Jose Velasquez for 12 rounds to retain the IBF and WBA (super) super bantamweight titles. Coming up on Saturday, there will be another unified champion at 122 pounds as WBO titlist Stephen Fulton Jr. battles WBC titleholder, Brandon Figueroa.
According to BetMGM, Fulton (19-0, 8 KOs) is a sizable favorite to add the WBC belt to his collection as he's been installed at -350. When asked about what he'd like next if he is victorious, the answer couldn't come out fast enough.
"Akhmadaliev," Fulton said bluntly to DAZN News.
The barrier to crowning an undisputed champion is that Akhmadaliev and Fulton compete under different promotional outfits. The proverbial "crossing the street" has precluded a lot of significant bouts from happening, but there has been a thawing recently with the three fights between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder and last Saturday's contest featuring Terence Crawford's career-defining win over Shawn Porter. While many in and around the sport are trepid of this trend continuing, Fulton has the utmost confidence an Akhmadaliev clash happens in 2022 if he takes care of business this week.
"It's gonna happen. It will happen. It will happen. I believe it will happen," Fulton declared confidently.
The 122-pound weight class has slowly and surely become one of the glamour divisions in all of boxing. You have Akhmadaliev, Fulton, Figueroa, and former unified champion Daniel Roman at the top of the heap. Fulton views himself and the aforementioned three on top of the division. However, Fulton believes he's the cream of the crop, and not Akhmadaliev, for one simple reason.
"The only reason why I'm not just going to say Akhmadaliev is because he has the belts but look at the amount of fights he has and the experience he’s had in the pros, I can't just give that street to him," Fulton said. "A lot of people just be biased because he has the belts, and he beat Danny Roman. But I don't. I think it would be out of him, Danny Roman, and Brandon Figueroa. It'd be out of them three. I can't just give that to him. He has ten fights. He's no (Vasiliy) Lomachenko."
Before a four-belt battle can be booked, Fulton has a tough test ahead of him in Figueroa (22-0-1, 17 KOs). Figueroa is one of the most exciting, if not the most exciting, fighter in the division. He only goes forward and is always looking to bring the action. Regardless of the stakes on Saturday, Fulton doesn't expect Figueroa to change his stripes, and because of that, he plans to get him out of there inside the distance.
"It would be too late in the game for him to change who he is and his fighting style," Fulton said. "They could try to tweak a couple of things. I'm still expecting him to be him. Eventually, as you keep going and you keep fighting his natural self will eventually have him resort back to what he knows. When people are put in different situations, they naturally go back to what they know. So eventually, he'll come back even if he does try to do things differently. If things get heated or once we start engaging, you will see him going right back to the Brandon Figueroa we’ve all seen.
"I want it to win by knockout. I want to go crazy and (end it) in the eighth or ninth (round)."