PHILADELPHIA — Stephen Fulton, formerly the WBC/WBO junior featherweight titlist and The Ring’s current No. 1 122-pound contender, is planning a return to the ring on August 10 in Las Vegas against Ronny Rios (34-4, 17 knockouts), The Ring has learned.

Fulton (21-1, 8 KOs) will make his featherweight debut as a co-feature to the possible return of former IBF super middleweight titlist Caleb Plant, who has not fought since March 25, 2023, when he lost a unanimous decision to David Benavidez.

Fulton’s return is not expected to be a pay-per-view fight, and possibly be the first fight shown on Amazon Prime.

Fulton was supposed to fight this Saturday against New York-based Luis Reynaldo Nunez on the Tank Davis-Frank Martin undercard in a Premier Boxing Champions Amazon Prime PPV event. But that fight fell through when Nunez got hurt during training camp.

Fulton will return with a few major changes. For one, Bozy Ennis, the father, manager and trainer of Jaron “Boots” Ennis, will now train “Scooter” while Wahid Rahim steps aside, though Rahim will continue as Fulton’s manager.

“I am still with my man Wahid, people need to know that, but Bozy will be training me,” Fulton said. “Wahid is my manager. I trust him. We both think this is what is best for me. I wanted to come back at 130 but will come back at 126 and the plan is for the WBA title. I have been around Bozy a lot and we know each other really well. I have been training and been around Bozy and Boots through the years. I know how they work and maybe there are some things that they see in me that I haven’t seen in myself yet.”

Fulton returned to the gym last September after the July eight-round stoppage loss to eventual 2023 Fighter of the Year Naoya Inoue, The Ring’s junior featherweight world champion and unified IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO titlist.

“I learned a lot from that fight,” Fulton said. “I should have trained harder than I did. Other than that, I do not want to say too much about that. I think my mindset is more different. I have added to my arsenal. I am over it. I am just completely comfortable with speaking about it. I feel like I could have done far better than I did. People pushed a narrative on me that do not know what they are talking about. I was killing myself to make 122.

“I could not throw the way I wanted to throw. I will not take anything away from Inoue; he won fair and square. He is a great fighter, and he gave me an opportunity. I am just mad at myself because I know I could have fought better. I was killing myself three years ago to make the Brandon Figueroa fight (a Fulton majority decision to win the WBC junior featherweight title). I want Bozy and get my guy Steve Maltepes involved. He helped me for the Paulus Ambunda fight.

“This is a huge year for me. I plan on being a three-time world champion (WBO/WBC junior featherweight) this year. The only one who can stop me is me. I feel like that about my last fight, too. I could have trained and worked harder for my last fight than I did, but there is no sense in crying over spilled milk. I am ready to step into those uncomfortable spots and work hard again.”

Joseph Santoliquito is a Hall of Fame, award-winning sportswriter who has been working for Ring Magazine/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Follow @JSantoliquito

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