Stephen Fulton’s last performance turned a lot of heads, from his ring attire to the manner in which he claimed his second divisional title.

Bruce ‘Shu Shu’ Carrington—perhaps next in line for the newly crowned WBC featherweight titlist—was impressed only to a point. The Brooklyn, New York native appreciated Fulton’s ability to return to the title stage in style—literally.

“The outfit was dope, I can’t lie,” Carrington told The Ring. “They want to say that was supposed to be a Philly outfit. That was a New York outfit, I don’t care what anybody says.

“If I’m being honest, I was more impressed with the outfit than his performance.”

Philadelphia’s Fulton (23-1, 8 KOs) earned a repeat win over Brandon Figueroa (25-2-1, 19 KOs) in their Feb. 1 rematch at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The former unified 122-pound titlist donned ring garb simulating jean shorts and Timberland boots, a casual approach to his all-business performance against Figueroa.

All three judges turned in clear-cut scores (116-112, 116-112, 117-111) in favor of Fulton, now The Ring’s No. 4 featherweight contender.

“There wasn’t too much that Fulton needed to do,” suggested Carrington, The Ring’s No. 9-rated featherweight. “He had good enough conditioning to withstand what Figueroa tried to do. There wasn’t really anything special that he did in there. He just did what he needed to do, to win and that was enough.

Fulton’s performance was a far cry from his featherweight debut just five months prior in the same arena. Fulton was considered fortunate to have escaped with a split decision win over Carlos Castro last September. A similar argument—though not nearly as strong—was made after Fulton’s Nov. 2021 majority decision win to unify the WBC and WBO 122-pound titles.

There was no doubt in this fight, to the point where he crashed The Ring’s top ten and is currently the No. 4 position. The high placement was reflective of his ability to make Figueroa outright lost at times.

That part caught the attention of Carrington (14-0, 8 KOs) more so than what Fulton was able to accomplish in his title-winning effort.

“I’m not knocking the win, he did what he had to do and he’s now two-division (titlist),” noted Carrington. “But I just feel like Brandon Figueroa didn’t come with a game plan. He just went in there, just tried to keep constant pressure. There was no punch selection, no setup on his punches. Nothing was there.

“I felt like Fulton was slowing down late. There were times when Figueroa was on him and Fulton was just losing his stance and was off-balance…it was because he was getting tired. But Figueroa didn’t have the power to put that much pressure. Fulton was able to catch his breath when he needed to and landed the eye-catching shots when he needed to land them.”

Carrington has the chance to further his cause in his next fight. The 27-year-old contender faces Enrique Vivas (23-3, 12 KOs) on a March 29 ESPN-branded show headlined by the Mikaela Mayer-Sandy Ryan WBO welterweight title fight rematch.

With a win, his team is expected to push for a straightaway shot at Fulton. That scenario will depend on whether Rey Vargas (36-1-1, 22 KOs)—The Ring’s No. 5 featherweight and the WBC ‘Champion in Recess’—is fit to return and first challenge for his old belt.