Naoya Inoue was so close to claiming the Pound for Pound top spot when taking out Paul Butler to become the undisputed bantamweight champion.
In unifying all the belts at 118, Inoue cemented his place as one of the best boxers on the planet. However, it just wasn’t enough to overthrow Usyk.
Naoya Inoue
Due to the amount of weight class bunched together at the lower weights, light flyweight to bantamweight is covered by just ten pounds in weight.
Therefore, claiming belts – even as low as 105 pounds– is not impossible for a fighter who eventually ends up at 118 or 122. It’s been done before and will be done again in the future.
Usyk’s feat of becoming undisputed at cruiserweight and then claiming three world title belts at heavyweight has only been done once before. The great Evander Holyfield managed it during the 1990s.
So, Inoue will have to make do with second place behind the WBN Fighter of the Year for 2022.
His performance was a stalking one in Japan as the “Monster” pressed the Englishman until he succumbed in the eleventh round. Inoue is, without a doubt, the most important name below 126 pounds.
Boasting a 24-0 record with 21 stoppages, you wouldn’t bet against Inoue adding a 122 title in the coming year.
Inoue already has a solid legacy behind him. Taking on the best at 122 and even 126 could further cement that.
WBN Pound for Pound Top 50 – December 2022
1 Oleksandr USYK
Heavy
2 Naoya INOUE
Bantam
3 CANELO Alvarez
Super Middle
4 Errol SPENCE JR
Welter
5 Dmitry BIVOL
Light Heavy
6 Terence CRAWFORD
Welter
7 Devin HANEY
Light
8 Jermell CHARLO
Super Welter
9 Juan ESTRADA
Superfly
10 Tyson FURY
Heavy
11 Shakur STEVENSON
Light
12 Gervonta DAVIS
Super Light
13 Kazuto IOKA
Superfly
14 Vasiliy LOMACHENKO
Light
15 Roman GONZALEZ
Superfly
16 Artur BETERBIEV
Light Heavy
17 Rey VARGAS
Feather
18 Jesse RODRIGUEZ
Fly
19 Stephen FULTON JR.
Super Bantam
20 Deontay WILDER
Heavy
21 Regis PROGRAIS
Super Light
22 Jack CATTERALL
Super Light
23 Kosei TANAKA
Superfly
24 Leo SANTA CRUZ
Feather
25 Emanuel NAVARRETE
Feather
26 Jermall CHARLO
Middle
27 David BENAVIDEZ
Super Middle
28 Gennadiy GOLOVKIN
Middle
29 Kenshiro TERAJI
Light Fly
30 Teofimo LOPEZ
Super Light
31 Andy RUIZ JR.
Heavy
32 Jose RAMIREZ
Super Light
33 Knockout CP FRESHMART
Minimum
34 John Riel CASIMERO
Super Bantam
35 Murodjon AKHMADALIEV
Super Bantam
36 Josh TAYLOR
Super Light
37 Callum SMITH
Light Heavy
38 Caleb PLANT
Super Middle
39 Jaime MUNGUIA
Super Light
40 Keith Thurman
Welter
41 Demetrius ANDRADE
Super Middle
42 Payna PRADABSRI
Minimum
43 Fernando MARTINEZ
SuperFly
44 Jai OPETAIA
Cruiser
45 Hector GARCIA
Super Feather
46 Lawrence OKOLIE
Cruiser
47 Jaron ENNIS
Welter
48 Zhanibek ALIMKHANULY
Middle
49 Srisaket Sor RUNGVISAI
Superfly
50 Sandor MARTIN Super
Light
