Stevenson on Inoue’s P4P Rank: Too Many “No-Names”

Shakur Stevenson says he doesn’t have Naoya Inoue in his top 3 pound-for-pound list because he’s fought “no-names” since his one good win against Stephen ‘Cool Boy Steph’ Fulton in 2023.

Stevenson makes an excellent point. Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs) should be nowhere near the top 3 based on the lackluster opposition he’s been padding his record against. Even putting Naoya on the list would be going overboard. The top 10 should be for fighters who are taking risks with their careers.

P4P: Inoue’s “No-Name” Foes

– Ramon Cardenas
– Ye Joon Kim
– TJ Doheny
– Luis Nery
– Marlon Tapales

Inoue has been slow in fighting Murodjon Akhmadaliev and Junto Nakatano. Both are in and around his weight class, yet he’s not chosen to fight them. What does that tell you? Naoya should have fought those guys a long time ago instead of the middle-of-the-road opposition that he’s been feasting on.

Stevenson Excludes Inoue Top 3

“Top pound-for-pound, I would go with Bud Crawford. I like Bivol. I don’t think people give him credit. He two of the biggest names in boxing. He dominated both of those fights [Artur Beterbiev] to me,” said Shakur Stevenson to the Ariel Helwani channel. “#3, I’m going to go with Usyk, and I know he can’t really be a pound-for-pound.”

I have to disagree with Shakur on putting Terence Crawford at #1 pound-for-pound. He hasn’t beaten anyone good enough to even be on the top 15 list. He arguably lost his last fight against Israil Madrimov.

“With Inoue, he had that one fight with ‘Cool Boy Steph’ [Stephen Fulton], and he did good in that fight. He looked good. They crucified me for fighting no-name fighters and fighters people don’t know. I felt like he kind of done the same thing,” said Shakur about Naoya Inoue.

Fulton was too weak to do much in his fight with Inoue. That was a mismatch in power more than anything. Inoue should have moved to 126 after that fight.

“That’s true,” said Stevenson when told there’s not that many fighters where Inoue fights that are good enough for him to get quality names on his resume. Junto Nakatani, that’s the fight that needs to be made. If he beats that guy, I’m definitely putting him at the top.

“Give me 10, 9,” said Stevenson about where he’d place himself on the pound-for-pound list.