Last Friday, Naoya Inoue (29-0; 26 KOs) did what he does best: knock out his opponent. This time the victim was South Korea’s Ye Joon Kim (21-3-2; 13 KOs), the replacement for Australia’s Sam Goodman, who failed to recover even though the fight had been postponed a few weeks. It is true that Kim lacked the pedigree to put Inoue’s super bantamweight reign in jeopardy, something that was confirmed during the fight. This is partly due to the fact that Naoya is at the pinnacle of boxing in terms of skills.
It took the Japanese fighter only six fights to become world champion, something unusual in the sport of 16 ropes unless you land in the professional ranks after a brilliant amateur career, crowned with Olympic success. In short, since turning pro in 2012, he has already won 22 world title fights, which is no mean feat. He now has 10 consecutive KO victories and holds all four world belts in his category. All this has put him on the podium of the main pound-for-pound rankings.
Promoter Bob Arum (Top Rank) announced last week that Inoue will fight in the United States this year – in the spring – something that has not happened since 2021, and all indications are that his opponent will be Alan Picasso, who is the number one contender of the World Boxing Council (WBC). However, promoter Eddie Hearn (Matchroom Boxing) wants him to fight Murodjon Akhmadaliev, who is the World Boxing Association (WBA) challenger. Sam Goodman would remain in the background as the contender presented by the WBO and IBF.
The Briton was tough on the Japanese in an interview with iFL TV at the prospect of him facing Picasso: “Why should Naoya Inoue be given a pass to fight low-level opponents and dodge his obligation? He hasn’t done it once or twice, but three times. Naoya Inoue is a great pound-for-pound fighter, but his resume is shit. Okay, he beat Stephen Fulton,” the Englishman began.
The Matchroom boss’s speech continued in the same vein: “It was a good performance [Ye Joon Kim] but I think Naoya Inoue is really disappointing, and I think he’s very, very disappointing as a champion. I think boxing fans need to realise what’s going on with him. He boxed TJ Doheny and the old man on Saturday [Ye Joon Kim]. I know he was supposed to fight Sam Goodman. No disrespect, but it’s just another [easy fight]. It’s time for him to be taken off the pound-for-pound list.” By age, Doheny would be the ‘old man’.
It is arguable that Inoue is, for example, second in The Ring magazine’s rankings, precisely because of what Hearn says: Doheny and Kim do not argue that he should remain in that position, although it can always be argued that he was let down by the injured Goodman. However, what happens to Inoue could be extrapolated to other fighters in the rankings.
Does Crawford deserve to be number three despite his lack of activity and the opponents he has? Of his last five fights, ‘Bud’ has only faced one star, Spence, who since his accident has dropped in performance. Now he is aiming at Canelo, but his natural rivals would be Ennis or Murtazaliev. We have Beterbiev, who has done his job with the assigned opponents and Bivol remains at least until his rematch with the latter due to his great performance in the first fight. Jesse Rodriguez is also lacking big names, except for Estrada, but his skills put him very high. The number one is very clear – Usyk – and the rest could be debated. Certainly, and in the opinion of this writer, who deserves a push would be Gervonta Davis as soon as he returns to the ring (March 1) and triumphs.
Let’s take the top 10 from The Ring magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings, which have always been the benchmark, and put their last five fights on the table for you, our reader, to draw your own conclusions.
RANKING THE RING AND LAST FIVE OPPONENTS
1. Oleksandr Usyk (23-0; 14 KOs)
vs. Tyson Fury (unanimous decision)
vs. Tyson Fury (split decision)
vs. Daniel Dubois (KO)
vs. Anthony Joshua (split decision)
vs. Anthony Joshua (unanimous decision)
2. Naoya Inoue (29-0; 26 KOs)
vs. Ye Joon Kim (KO)
vs. TJ Doheny (TKO)
vs. Luis Nery (TKO)
vs. Marlon Tapales (KO)
vs. Stephen Fulton (TKO)
3. Terence Crawford (41-0; 31 KOs)
vs. Israil Madrimov (unanimous decision)
vs. Errol Spence Jr (TKO)
vs. David Avanesyan (KO)
vs. Shawn Porter (TKO)
vs. Kell Brook (TKO)
4. Artur Beterbiev (21-0; 20 KOs)
vs. Dmitry Bivol (majority decision)
vs. Callum Smith (TKO)
vs. Anthony Yarde (TKO)
vs. Joe Smith Jr. (TKO)
vs. Marcus Browne (KO)
5. Dmitry Bivol (23-1; 12 KOs)
vs. Artur Beterbiev (loss – majority decision)
vs. Malik Zinad (TKO)
vs. Lyndon Arthur (unanimous decision)
vs. Gilberto Ramirez (unanimous decision)
vs. Canelo Alvarez (unanimous decision)
6. Jesse Rodriguez (21-0; 14 KOs)
vs. Pedro Guevara (TKO)
vs. Juan Francisco Estrada (KO)
vs. Sunny Edwards (withdrawn)
vs. Cristian Gonzalez (unanimous decision)
vs. Israel Gonzalez (unanimous decision)
Canelo Alvarez (62-2-2; 39 KOs)
vs. Edgar Berlanga (unanimous decision)
vs. Jaime Munguia (unanimous decision)
vs. Jermell Charlo (unanimous decision)
vs. John Ryder (unanimous decision)
vs. Gennady Golovkin (unanimous decision)
8. Gervonta Davis (30-0; 28 KOs)
vs. Frank Martin (KO)
vs. Ryan Garcia (KO)
vs. Hector Garcia (TKO)
vs. Rolando Romero (TKO)
vs. Isaac Cruz (unanimous decision)
9. Junto Nakatani (22-0, 29 KOs)
vs. Tasana Salapat (TKO)
vs. Vincent Astrolabio (KO)
vs. Alexandro Santiago (TKO)
vs. Argi Cortes (unanimous decision)
vs. Andrew Moloney (KO)
10. Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs)
vs. Regis Prograis (unanimous decision)
vs. Vasyl Lomachenko (unanimous decision)
vs. George Kambosos Jr. (unanimous decision)
vs. George Kambosos Jr. (unanimous decision)
vs. Joseph Diaz (unanimous decision)
His fight against Ryan Garcia does not count