Stephen Fulton refused to break eye contact during his final look at Naoya Inoue one day prior to their unified title fight.   

The visiting WBC/WBO junior featherweight titlist hit the scale at a rock solid 121.9 pounds for his first career fight outside the U.S. Inoue was a career-heaviest but phenomenally sculpted 121.7 pounds as he plays the role of challenger for the first time in more than four years. The two will meet in a scheduled twelve-round 122-pound title fight this Tuesday from Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.

Fulton-Inoue headlines a four-fight telecast on ESPN+ beginning 4:30 a.m. ET. The event will also stream locally on Lemino.

Fulton (21-0, 8KOs) arrived in Japan two weeks ago from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to fully acclimate to his surroundings in his first fight outside the U.S. and as an underdog. Odds continue to increase for Yokohama’s Inoue (24-0, 21KOs), who is now a -450 favorite according to bet365 sportsbook, which lists Fulton as a +350 underdog ahead of his third WBO and overall title defense and second as the unified WBC/WBO titlist.

Inoue moves up from bantamweight, where he became the division’s first fully unified champion in the three- or four-belt era.

A win on Tuesday will see the high-ranking pound-for-pound entrant become Japan’s first boxer ever to earn unified title status in at least two weight divisions. He also held the WBC junior flyweight and WBO junior bantamweight title, and aims to become the third Japanese boxer to win at least one title in four weight divisions.

The evening’s co-feature will see Cuba’s two-time Olympic Gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez (12-1, 7KOs) attempt the first defense of his WBO featherweight title versus Inoue stablemate Satoshi Shimizu (11-1, 10KOs). Both boxers were 125.7 pounds, under the 126-pound featherweight limit for their scheduled twelve-round contest.  

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox