Who is boxing’s pound-for-pound king?
Heavyweights tend to dominate the boxing scene, which is why it is often referred to as the blue-ribbon division.
Most armchair fans could easily give you a list of today's best big men along with their opinion on the greatest heavyweights of all-time, yet fail to be able to identify many of the top fighters across the other weight categories. The popularity of the lower weights starts to slow from the welterweights downwards, which is where the purists tend to find more interest.
Rarely have heavyweights dominated the pound-for-pound scene, and in today's era it's no different. Talk of Usyk vs Fury and the undisputed heavyweight championship overshadows the top fighters in the other 16 divisions, yet wouldn’t even rank in the top 10 list according to many hardcore fight fans.
Two fighters have appeared to break away from the race to be crowned pound-for-pound king, leaving the rest of the top 10 for dust.
With stunning victories, unbeaten records, conquering multiple weight divisions, it is an impossible task to find anyone else to challenge this pair for the throne right now. It's a two horse race, but just who is top dog? Is it the welterweight ruler, Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford, or ‘The Monster’ rampaging through the lighter divisions, Naoya Inoue?
Naoya Inoue (26-0, 23KOs)
Four-weight world champion Naoya Inoue has taken over the boxing world at blistering pace. It has taken him just 378 days to become the undisputed champion in two weight classes. While Crawford beat him to the mark on this incredible feat, as the first male boxer to become a two-weight undisputed champion in a four-belt era, Inoue did so at an incomprehensible speed.
Just a few days ago, on Boxing Day, he was crowned undisputed champion of the super-bantamweights by knocking out in-form Filipino Marlon Tapales in the 10th. Tapales put up a tough fight and his effort was commendable, but every so often a fighter comes along that appears to be unbeatable; Inoue is that man.
‘The Monster’ has the ability to end a fight at any stage of the bout, he doesn’t have to worry about getting his opponent out of the way early, nor does he have to wait and attempt to tire out his opposition, no matter what round he is in, Inoue is always a threat. He pairs his devastating power with fantastic ring generalship and lightning-fast hands, cutting off escape routes as he darts in and out landing rapid, destructive combinations. Even if you run away from him for the entore fight, you can't escape your fate, as Paul Butler will testify.
On top of simply looking at Inoue's attributes, his record is nothing to be smirked at. This year alone the Kanagawa-raised fighter has stepped into the ring against two formidable opponents. Tapales was the current WBA and IBF champion, and at the time of fighting Fulton held the WBC and WBO belts. His matchup against Fulton is regarded as perhaps the best win of his career. He put all his skills on display, gliding in and out of danger, picking apart Fulton, while taking little damage himself, before moving up through the gears and decimating the American in the eighth.
Since ‘The Monsters’ sixth fight, where he won his first world title, every fight has had a major belt on the line. In fact, he has only had three non-title contests, so his championship record currently stands at 23-0, 20KOs.
Despite these accomplishments, Inoue’s record is often overlooked, and people will argue that he has not fought against the same calibre of fighters as other top pound-for-pound boxers. However, taking a deep dive through his career, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
In just ‘The Monster’s’ eighth fight he made the jump up two divisions to fight WBO Super Flyweight champion Omar Andres Narvaez. Narvaez may have been 38 at the time but on a streak of 11 straight title defences, no one could have predicted how easily Inoue would pummel through him. It took the 30-year-old just two rounds to take Narvaez out. The Argentinian was knocked down four times in the first two before failing to get out of his stool for the start of the third round.
Pairing this alongside jumping up to super bantamweight and fighting Stephen Fulton – widely regarded as the division's leader – in his maiden outing at 122 pounds and pulling off his best performance to date, it's hard to argue against Inoue’s record, that he has fought whoever is in his path, dismantled the best in each division he has conquered and has not yet been faced with a significant challenge inside the ring. The way he makes his opponents look is testament to his dominance and greatness.
Terence Crawford (40-0, 31KOs)
Triple champion Terence Crawford became the first man in the modern era to become undisputed champion in two weight classes after a recent demolition job over unbeaten Errol Spence Jr. The fight was expected to be a close battle in which either man could have come out on top, but this couldn’t have been further from the truth.
A supposed 50-50 fight, Errol Spence Jr. was ranked fourth according to The Ring with ‘Bud’ placed third. Many thought it would go the distance, a tightly fought contest, separated by only a round or two, but Crawford had other ideas, he beat the Texan to the punch every time, with Spence unable to land anything of note.
As the fight went on it only got more and more one-sided with it starting to look like it could only go one way. Spence never backed down, always coming forward but his switch-hitting opponent was constantly two steps ahead, he always appeared to know what Spence would do and countered each of his attempted attacks with piercing precision.
Now 36, Crawford showcased he is a complete fighter, with the timing and precision expected from one of the best fighters on the planet, landing over 50% of punches thrown across the bout. This area of his game has been a staple point of his illustrious career.
On top of his incredible precision, Crawford might just be the most adaptable fighter on the planet. It would be hard to guess that the American is right-handed as he is happy to fight in either stance and switches between them at ease. He does not take a one-size-fits-all approach to his fights, being happy to stand and trade with the big hitters, as well as outpoint the top boxers.
He may not be seen as a ‘knockout artist’ but ‘Bud’ has an underappreciated punching power. It has been over seven years since the ‘Welterweight King’ has been taken the distance. He hurts fighters in a different manner than Inoue does, with his punches breaking down opponents over the course of a fight. The American may not have the same ‘lights off’ power that his pound-for-pound counterpart obtains, but 31 KOs in 40 fights is nothing to be sniffed at.
Crawford is another fighter who has never backed away from a fight, a record to be proud of he has stood toe-to-toe with all-time greats at emerged victorious, with wins over Shawn Porter, Ricky Burns and Amir Khan. Despite such a glittering resume, his recent victory over Spence stands proud as the highlight of his career.
Verdict
There is not much that separates these two elite athletes, and since we will never see them share the ring, and they have no overlaps on their resume, it is incredibly difficult to definitively say who is the greater of the two.
Both fighters have perhaps the best resume they could possibly have within their respective weight divisions, though Crawford’s record is slightly more impressive. As dominant as Inoue was against Fulton, The Omaha-based fighter made even lighter work of Spence Jr. The weight divisions that the younger man has conquered perhaps aren’t quite as competitive as those in which Crawford has spent his career fighting in, leading to ‘Bud’ fighting slightly more ‘big names’ in the sport.
Nonetheless, Inoue’s meteoric rise to the top is something that hasn’t been seen for a long time, and he shows no signs of slowing down. With two fights this year and two in 2022, ‘The Monster’ is by far the more active fighter. I would argue that the activity of the Japanese powerhouse plays a huge factor towards deciding who is pound for pound number one. At 36 years old Crawford might be nearing the twilight of his career, whereas Inoue still appears to just be warming up.
In my opinion, while the margins are razor thin, Naoya Inoue is the pound-for-pound king. The way in which he crushes everyone in his path is unheard of. He has competed in more weight divisions than Crawford and has risen to the top in a far shorter and wildly more violent. At present, putting either fighter at number one is respectable. Arguments for and against. Crawford defeated a top 5 pound-for-pound fighter, whereas Inoue hasn't been given the opportunity to yet.
Though Inoue is starting to showcase a dominance we haven’t seen in a long time and will likely enjoy a long reign at the top of the boxing world.
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