if he genuinely can’t make the weight then no
he doesn’t look that big to me though, I thought he might have stayed at the weight a bit longer to see if he could get one of those big fights.
He left the division just when it was heating up. No coincidence that Bob Arum signed him around this time--was the move up in weight a result of the infamous Top Rank Protection Program?
If he was having trouble making 115 lbs then that would be a legit, acceptable excuse though. I honestly don't know if he was.
if he genuinely can’t make the weight then no
he doesn’t look that big to me though, I thought he might have stayed at the weight a bit longer to see if he could get one of those big fights.
Hold it against him? No, not really, especially not knowing how he was making weight. Certainly the window of opportunity for Estrada and Chocolatito wasn't huge since they moved up around the time Naoya was outgrowing the division and Rungvisai wasn't a big name until he beat Gonzalez. I suppose the Cuadras fight could have happened in the right sort of timeframe though, but I never really saw that one mooted. FWIW Chocolatito was actually made an offer to fight Naoya back in 2016, but turned it down for financial reasons. What was Naoya supposed to do? Camp out at a weight he was no longer making comfortably for fights that weren't happening? :thinking:
https://www.boxingscene.com/chocolat...uadras--109181
If he had fought and beat any of them it would definitely add to his record but it doesn't - to me at least - somehow detract from what he has achieved that he didn't. I don't understand that kind of reasoning.
Yes. This is why I do not consider Inoue as a Top 10 P4P. His biggest win is against someone that Rigo already been beaten about 7 years prior to Inoue beating him.....and got damaged in the process. Jumping weight classes and picking up belts means very little when you go to a division and skip the top 4 in that division.