This was a close, hotly contested fight where Fulghum and Melikuziev seemed to take turns having big moments. They were separated by 2 or less landed punches in 5 of the 12 rounds. Over the first six rounds, Fulgham threw 200 punches to Melikuziev’s 184. Melikuziev narrowed the activity gap over the last six rounds, throwing 223 punches to Fulghum’s 224. Fulghum landed 24 more jabs than Melikuziev, while Melkuziev landed 23 more power punches than Fulghum. Melikuziev held a 44-33 edge in body punches landed. Melikuziev landed a body-head combo early in the 12th round that sent Fulghum to the canvas for the first time in his career. That knockdown negated a point deduction against Melikuziev for excessive holding in the 7th round, and swung judge’s cards in his favor. All three judges scored the fight 114-112 for Melikuziev.