Naoya Inoue: The Pound-for-Pound King With Ring Magazine, But Does His Record Stand Up?

Naoya Inoue has become Ring Magazine’s new pound-for-pound king, defeating Terence Crawford for the top spot.

Ring Magazine’s decision to choose undefeated super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs) over Crawford, Oleksandr Usyk, and Canelo Alvarez is questionable because Inoue’s wins haven’t been against top-quality opposition in the past five years.

In addition, Inoue has easily stayed at Super Bantamweight, where it’s safe, avoiding moving up to 126, which is in line with the sharks who might feast on Naoya. Is Inoue afraid of real challenges?

Who Has Naoya Inoue Been Beating?

For example, Inoue’s last Money win came against Luis Nery, a fighter who had just been beaten by Brandon Figueroa. Inoue has never hit the cream of the crop.

Most of Inoue’s victories, 31, have come against a team with similar flaws, and he was elected not to move up to featherweight, where he would be fighting many talented fighters who could beat him.

Inoue’s opposition from 2019

– Luis Nery
– Marlon Tapales
– Stephen Fulton
– Paul Butler
– Nonito Donaire: *Respect your elders but this man was 40 years old
– Aran Dipaen
– Michael Dasmariñas
– Jason Moloney
– Emmanuel Rodríguez
– Nonito Donaire

These lists are obviously independent, but it seems that the people who make them do not include the level of opposition. They’re like, ‘Oh, Inoue looked great. Let’s put him at #1,’ but we’re using some critical thinking by looking at who Inoue was actually beating.

Inoue is a good fighter, but he hasn’t fought against the likes of Crawford, Canelo, Usyk, and Dmitry Bivol.

The Ring Magazine Revised List – A joke, right?

1. Naoya Inoue
2. Terence Crawford
3. Oleksandr Usyk
4. Canelo Alvarez
5. Artur Beterbiev
6. Dmitry Bivol
7. Errol Spence
8. Gervonta Davis
9. Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez
10. Junto Nakatani

“The fact that he was knocked down and the way he came back. He was reckless in the first round, looking for big shots, throwing himself in the ring trying to finish easily,” said Gareth A. Davies about Naoya Inoue in his fight with Luis Nery.

“The way he is able to increase his strength in those stages and is able to take out opponents is amazing. Luis Nery, knocking him down in the first round, thought, ‘Wow, that’s amazing.’ He slowly cut down the tree in front of him.

“He and Terence Crawford are the only men who have won uncontested titles in two weights, and Syk may join them if he defeats Fury. For me, he’s done at #1. He’s a secret in the sports world, but not a secret in the boxing world. “Everybody knows what Tiger Woods is like and this guy is almost at that level,” Gareth said of Inoue, who is unknown to non-boxing fans in the US.