Naoya Inoue Reveals Where He Fits In Pound-For-Pound Ranking Among Crawford And Usyk

Boxing fans are getting spoiled this weekend, as many of the sport’s biggest stars are entering the ring over the next three days. Among these are Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, Canelo Alvarez, and Naoya Inoue.

While Naoya Inoue (who is putting his IBF, WBC, and WBO world super-bantamweight titles on the line against Ramon Cardenas in a May 4 fight in Las Vegas, Nevada) might be the least-known name among those four to an American audience, there’s an argument to be made that he’s the best boxer of the bunch.

In fact, most believe that the conversation between boxing’s pound-for-pound top boxer is between Inoue, Terence Crawford, and Oleksandr Usyk.

There’s a ton of debate among boxing fans about which of these three most deserves to be the pound-for-pound king. And many end up updating their lists so that whichever fighter of the three entered the ring most recently is at the top of it.

However, during his May 2 interview with Cigar Talk, Inoue sent a clear message about where he thinks he fits in among the active pound-for-pound rankings.

“I do this because I believe I’m number one [in the pound-for-pound ranking],” Inoue said when asked to rank him, Usyk, and Crawford.

While one can’t claim that Inoue isn’t confident, he doesn’t have the same opportunity to prove his status of boxing’s best active fighter in the same way that Crawford and Usyk do, because there aren’t the same volume of world class caliber fighters around his weight division when compared to the other two.

But if Inoue can keep dispatching his opponents in the way he has to this point, he could become undeniable when discussing pound-for-pound greats.

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