The last time we saw Stephen Fulton in action, he was hoisting up the unified super bantamweight world championship titles after an instant Fight of the Year candidate against Brandon Figueroa.
Now, “Cool Boy Steph” looks to make his first defense of his unified crown against former unified world champion Daniel Roman. The high-stakes bout takes place Saturday night at the Minneapolis Armory in Minnesota.
That being said, DAZN took the time to analyze the keys to victory for both fighters.
Daniel Roman’s keys to victory
Pressure
Fulton can sit on the outside and pick Roman apart with his jab. Roman just can’t let that happen. He must pressure the unified champion to get within Fulton’s slight reach advantage and more importantly make this his kind of fight.
Don’t fall behind early
Roman can’t afford to allow Fulton to bank rounds. Doing so would have Roman falling behind early and possibly facing another situation where he’s slightly nipped on the cards as he lost a tight split decision to Murodjon Akhmadaliev in June 2020 to surrender his unified crown. To snatch the 122-pound world titles, Roman must assert himself early. That pressure we addressed will certainly help.
Attack the body
Any time Roman is successful getting inside, making a commitment to attacking Fulton’s body would be wise. Fulton can be a tremendous volume puncher who is coming off landing 44 percent of his power punches in a thrilling majority decision over Brandon Figueroa in November. The bout reinforced that Fulton can turn his punch volume way up, but also that he can be hit often too as Figueroa landed a whopping 314 punches in that battle. Roman has got to let his hands go in this fight and pounding the champ’s body could find paydirt especially considering if this turns into a clash of attrition.
Stephen Fulton’s keys to victory
Jab away, turn punch volume up
Against Figueroa, Fulton proved that he can lock himself in the phonebooth and exchange punches in cramped quarters en route to victory. But damn was that a hard way of proving a point. If Fulton asserts the jab in this fight, he can deposit early rounds and use that same weapon of choice to start to pick Roman apart with combinations in an overall uptick of punch volume.
Hold and reset
With this being a championship fight and just given Roman’s style, Fulton is going to feel pressure and urgency. When Roman gets in close, Fulton could revert to holding the challenger in the clinch and pushing him off. Doing so would allow the champ to reset and return to that jab, which should pepper Roman enough to stifle his game efforts.
Uncork the counter left hook
Akhmadaliev showed it two years ago — Roman is susceptible to a left hook. Roman, at times, dips his stance to the left slightly, leaving his right side open to that big left hook. While Roman is pressuring and piecing together offense, detonating a counter left hook could be of great value to Fulton. It can also be a warning shot that Fulton goes to time to time to keep Roman honest in his efforts.