Naoya Inoue on Stephen Fulton's Threat to Pull Fight: 'Don't Suck It Up. Just Fight!'

Naoya Inoue is not backing down to Stephen Fulton's threat to pull out of their scheduled fight this week.

Inoue says he will continue to abide by Japanese rules amid concern from Fulton's camp regarding Inoue's hand tape.

Wahid Rahim, Fulton's head trainer, threatened to pull his fighter from the bout over what he deemed as "excessive" tape on Inoue's hands.

"In previous fights, Inoue and his team have wrapped his hands with an excessive amount of tape, and then applied more tape to the gauze which creates a cast," Rahim told reporters. "This is not an assumption. I have proof. We can wrap our hands in the same fashion but then where is the level of safety for our fighters?

"If this issue is not resolved, I am not letting my fighter into the ring. We are already behind enemy lines. We have made no requests. We did not even ask for a rematch clause. This is the only request I've demanded."

Inoue has emerged as one of the biggest names in international boxing, racking up a 24-0 record while winning the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO and The Ring bantamweight titles. His 21 knockouts have earned him the reputation as one of the biggest pound-for-pound power punchers in the sport.

Fulton is undefeated in his own right, winning his first 21 career fights, largely as a defensvie fighter. He is the current WBC and WBO super bantamweight champion.

This will mark Fulton's first fight outside the United States, as he attempts to capitalize on Inoue's wild popularity in Japan. Inoue, meanwhile, has spent most of his career fighting in Japan and has only two fights stateside. He defeated Jason Moloney and Michael Dasmariñas in fights in 2020 and 2021.

For his part, Fulton has told his staff he wants to move forward with the fight, so odds are it will go on as scheduled. That said, it's an interesting last-minute move to attempt to renegotiate rules just days before a fight was set to go off.

If Fulton's cap was concerned about the amount of tape used in Inoue's previous fights, that seems like an issues that should have been brought up in initial negotiations.