Comments Thread For: Naoya Inoue Rules Out Immediate Move To Featherweight

[The Big Dunn]

Boots Ennis? Shouldn't Crawford have taken him on to truly clean out 147 ?

No. Boots is a great talent no doubt. Destroying Spence and unifying all the belts was enough at WW.

IMO, after Spence, he should’ve gone to 154 for JMW Charlo but he was lined up for Canelo.

[JOITATS]

Naoya Inoue should have the right to decide when he wants to move up, he is specifically targeting top competition in every bout. If there are still multiple viable options at 122 then he is still accomplishing quite well.

126 might be his ceiling, which is currently filled with opponents that will prove quite physically more taxing to beat, and quite varied in terms of skill.

There is like:

-Brandon Figueroa a 5'8 volume pressure fighter.

-Relentless and durable in-fighter Nick Ball.

-The 72 inch reach counter puncher in Bruce Carrington.

-The unorthodox big puncher in Luis Alberto Lopez.

-Otabek Kholmatov the quite athletic pure boxer that throws long range combinations while moving in the ring.

-The complete and hard hitting gold medalist southpaw in Robeisy Ramirez.

-The 6'1 pure boxer with insane cardio conditioning and punch output Rafael Espinoza.

Biggest potential names for Inoue's future:

Figueroa
this seems the most realistic in 2025.
Figueroa is the biggest name in the US near Inoue.

Junto Nakatani
Realistic. I'd prefer to see Inoue take the international stage.
But Nakatani is a P4P top 10 fighter. It would raise Inoue's stock a lot.

Lopez
would be entertaining for boxing fans, just because Lopez is wild.
Inoue would be favorite, and when he wins, ppl who say Lopez hasn't fought anyone of note.

Bam
Not realistic. He just moved up.
It's going to take a couple more years for this to be even considered. again, a P4P top 10 opponent.

Estrada
Never. He doesn't even want to fight champions like Ioka at his own wgt. Too inactive.

Tank
Wgt-wise, this is absurd.
But I think Inoue wants supreme greatness. I honestly think Inoue would consider it in a year of two....
P4P top 10.


Nick Ball and Shu Shu arent even close to be mentioned in the big name pool.