Stephen Fulton is still kicking himself.

The Philly star once walked around like he couldn’t be beat. Can you blame him? For practically the entirety of his career, Fulton barely lost rounds. So, when he attempted to knock off Naoya Inoue in 2023, he was convinced he could get the job done.

Hindsight, of course, is 2020. Fulton (22-1, 8 KOs) was dominated thoroughly and eventually stopped. Looking back, Fulton accepts defeat but he believes his body betrayed him. Sticking around at 122 pounds was a complete detriment to him on that particular night.

After taking some time off to reset, the 30-year-old ditched the super bantamweight division and headed four pounds north.

So far so good for Fulton, as he won a close but clear decision against Carlos Castro in his featherweight debut. Now, in his second appearance, he’ll take on a familiar face in Brandon Figueroa on February 1st.

Getting ready for another all-out war might seem difficult but for Fulton, he’s been enjoying himself. A burger here, some fries there, the extra pounds have been doing him justice.

The plan for him is as simple as possible: grab Figueroa’s WBC title and attempt to unify the division. But just because the former WBC and WBO champ has lofty goals, it doesn’t mean he intends on making the featherweight division a long-term home.

“I wanna go up where I’m a lot more comfortable,” Fulton told The Ring during a recent Zoom interview. “That’s what I really wanna do. I’ll be a lot more comfortable when I move up.”

When he campaigned at 122 pounds, Fulton once dreamed of becoming an undisputed champion. At 126, that isn’t completely off the table, despite the transient nature of his pitstop.

“It all depends. I’m just focused on this at the moment so it all depends.”