Inoue's been unbelievably dominant but I still have to give it to Usyk for beating AJ. If Inoue goes up and beats Fulton and MJ then he has a very strong case for #1. I hope he does that instead of wasting even more of his career fighting Butler literally nobody wants to see that fight. Butler should just mail Inoue his belt to save us some time.
I, and many other people, thought the possibility of Nonito KOing Inoue w/ a one hitter quitter was a good one. And I picked Nonito to KO him. Nonito has been obsessed w/ Inoue since the announcement of the WBSS and he came into this fight with a gruesomely violent masterclass beating of Oubaali. He also had the mental advantage knowing there's a previous broken eye he could target.
Donaire is a warrior and criminally underrated historically. He gave it his all and definitely came to win but father time is undefeated. If we had a time machine I would've loved to have seen a prime donaire against inoue now that would've been a sight to see. Donaire probably would beat him prime for prime imo.
I can't rank fighters, but Usyk, Inoue, Bivol are the guys I want to see fight. Next level would include Estrada, Crawford and Spence. Fury is retired and out out boxing. Loma is questionable until he fights beats someone high up the ranks.
Barn burner for sure, but I see the same outcome. Inoue is not only accurate, with exceptional timing and speed, but also bone-crushing power. And he's got an iron chin.
I will admit that I don't follow anything under 126 closely but I know for a fact that around 5% of the human male population is under 5'6. The talent pool is shocking and it shows, there are excellent boxers in the lower weight classes but they simply don't compare to boxers between 130lbs and 200lbs. That's why the quality of HW is shocking as well, only 5% of the population are above 6'4 or so and someone as unskilled as Wilder can have 10+ defenses, a guy who started boxing in his late teens.
Before canelo lost who I had #1 I had it 1. Canelo 2. Crawford 3. Usyk Crawford has moved through many weights and was undisputed at 140 he's deserving of his ranking.
I don't rate Crawford's wins quite as highly as you do. If he beats Spence, which I think he will, then I may rank him number 1.
I know you're caught up in the moment with giddy and excitement but let's be totally real. As great Inoue looked he still beat a 39 YEAR OLD Nonito Donaire. Yes Donaire is probably the 2nd best of that division but let's not overlook the fact that age does play a factor. Usyk have a better case of being called the P4P best as well as the winner of Crawford/Spence. It's best to reserve that P4P King statement until Inoue beats younger, fresher elite fighters around his division and becoming undisputed. I can see him having a case if he clears out 118 and 122.
A 39 year old Donaire that authored 2 brutal KOs against 2 undefeated fighters, one champ, and one of which was a shockingly violent KO. Inoue is 16-0 (14 KO) in championship fights and he's lost a handful of rounds in his ENTIRE career. He needed 8 TOTAL rounds to KO Donaire, Narvaez, McDonnell, Payano, and Rodriguez. He has had ZERO controversial victories and had ONE tough fight when he was handicapped by a broken eye socket. And it was competitive, but not close (8-4 at the very worst). He does it with scary clinical boxing and pressure and violence. Zero spoiling. He has initiated 4 clinches in his career. All against Nonito. NO ONE HAS BEEN MORE DOMINANT IN THE LAST 10 YEARS. NO ONE. Not Floyd, not Manny, not Crawford, not Spence, not Usyk, not Lomachenko.
"The global mean height of adult men born in 1996 is 171 centimetres (cm), or 5 foot and 7.5 inches." SD for height is 2.5 inches, around 15% of human males globally then should be below 5'5, which makes a lot of sense, considering average height of Latin America, China, Japan is like 5'4-5'7 depending on area. You're not looking at it globally.