Stephen Fulton: ‘This is all about me now’

A LOT has changed about how I feel about boxing. I feel like the boxing world turns its back on you, whether they feel like you lost or you won the fight. They just make you feel like you’re low, at times. And that’s part of the reason why I don’t really care about what anybody feels about me anymore. I don’t care about how they how they feel about the fight. I just care about me right now.

I’m just taking care of what I need and I’m gonna fight the way I feel like fighting. I’m not fighting for the fans no more. I’m fighting for myself. Because the fans can easily just shun you away. Eat you up and spit you out. And that’s how it made me feel sometimes. So at that point I’m just doing what’s best for me. But my emotions have been all over the place since my last couple of fights. And I can honestly say I’m in a great spot right now. I feel like from the Brandon Figueroa fight up until now part of the reason my attitude is the way it is, leading into this fight for me, not caring what Danny Roman has to bring. Because I feel like I’ve fought certain fights to show that I can get down and dirty. I can be versatile. I can fight certain fights. And I feel like people just turned their back on me a little bit.

Roman’s a great fighter, skilful, smart. I feel like he has a lot of things that I’m going to capitalise off. I don’t want to give too much away but there’s a lot. I feel like I am the better fighter. And I am the more skilled fighter. I’m the faster fighter. I am the smarter fighter. He is a vet in the game now. Thirty-three fights. Former unified champion. Can’t take nothing away from him but I’m just a better fighter. I feel like the fans are expecting the fight a certain way. And I’m expecting the fight a different way.

I look at it as a challenge. To challenge myself, challenge my body and challenge my mind. With that being said, I’ve done it before, I can do it again and I can do it again. It’s no different. It makes making weight easier but at the same time it is hard because you know you’re putting a lot on your body at once. You’re not eating as well as trying to make weight. But for some reason the weight was just coming down perfect for me. And as you can see, I’m still energetic right now. So I’ve been doing the right things.

I feel like training for a fight during Ramadan gives me the motivation that I need as well as the faith that I need to walk through these type of fights, during these times. Ramadan isn’t optional. Fighting is optional. When it comes to your religion that isn’t optional. And I can honestly say that I lead by example by training and preparing for a title defence against a durable fighter.

[My trainer Wahid Rahim and I] got a great relationship. He’s helped me a lot financially and everything else outside of the boxing world as well as inside the boxing world. He stayed on me about my taxes and things like that. Buying properties and investments. No one has done that for me. Everyone else was just sitting around, waiting around, just for a cheque or just wasn’t putting the work in. So he’s the only one that has been there putting the work in.

We all need something to feed off in order to get us to that next level and that next stage. And those things that I overcame were those things that I was feeding on in order to get me to the next level and in order to get me to the position I’m in now. In order to allow me to become world champion I had to go through things that made me tougher mentally, physically and emotionally. To get me prepared for these moments and these type of fights. I’m right there now.

Fulton was talking to Phil Rogers