By David Finger at ringside

There was a famous episode of the Simpsons from back in 1993 when Homer was asked to do standup comedy for Mr. Burns’ birthday party. Of course, Homer’s comedy show doesn’t go as planned when he is introduced by Smithers, who shares some news with the audience that completely derails things for Homer.

“A small puppy, not unlike Lassie, was just run over in the parking lot,” Smithers tells the audience before adding “and now it’s time for the comedy stylings of Homer Simpson!”

Ultimately the joke was that Homer was put in an impossible position. There was no way he could follow that announcement and win over the crowd.

It’s a feeling that Stephen Fulton probably can relate to right now.

Stephen Fulton and Brandon Figueroa were put into a similarly impossible situation when they had the unenviable task of following one of the most exciting fights in recent memory, and right before the highly anticipated main event between David Benavidez and David Morrell.

Make no mistake, there was no way a technician like Stephen Fulton, 126, could ever match the absolute violence that fans saw in the Isaac Cruz-Angel Fierro fight. But considering his first fight with Brandon Figueroa, 125.8, was a highly entertaining scrap in its own right (both men throw for close to 2,000 punches), there was still the expectation that the fight would keep the fans engaged, even if it didn’t match the fireworks of the first fight.

Unfortunately for both fighters, and particularly Stephen Fulton, fans at the T-Mobile arena were in no mood for a chess match inside of a phone booth and it took no time for the boo-birds to come out in force by round six.

It was a shame because what Stephen Fulton did was perhaps put forth the best performance of his career. Fulton scored a close decision over Figueroa back in 2021 and he certainly expected a similar fight strategy from the Texan, of throwing punches in bunches and using his reach advantage to keep the fight on the outside. But in a complete head scratcher Figueroa elected to lean into Fulton and spend twelve rounds inside of a phone booth with Fulton, completely nutralizing his natural advantage in size and reach. Fulton was easily able to adapt and after four rounds he clearly was pitching a shutout. Although the fight was hardly a barn burner, it was no fault of Fulton that the fight wasn’t particularly exciting, he was working with what Figueroa was doing and winning every round.

Although Figueroa did close the gap in the second half of the fight, it was simply too little,to late for the Texan. He never connected with anything earth shattering and with such a lead in Fulton’s pocket, the fight was simply out of reach for the Texan. At the end of the night all three judges had Fulton ahead by scores of 117-111 and two scores of 116-112. With the win Fulton, who picks up the WBC featherweight title, sees his record improve to 22-1, 8 KOs. Figueroa sees his record fall to 25-2-1, 19 KOs.