Not including Southeast Asians like Thai, Filipinos, Vietnamese etc, only East Asia, so countries like Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea etc. Could it be Inoue already? Or are there others you’d put ahead of him?
Fighting Harada. I only rank boxers from an all time perspective a few years after they've retired. Be interesting to see where Inoue washes up when he's done. He probably has some work to do to eclipse Harada.
Inoue has a ton to do before he overtakes Harada. The real question is has he done enough to be #2, and I think he has.
Sorry to digress, but this question had me looking a little closer at Harada’s record. I think it’s cool that very early in Harada’s career he beat Ken Morita and about seven years later Morita is judging his fights with Bernardo Caraballo and Lionel Rose. I am not sure why I like this fact, but I do. As far as the thread question goes, Harada certainly has higher end wins than Inoue does but Inoue has beaten more good fighters. As was the case back then, Harada’s record is replete with lesser lights mixed in with all of the quality boxers he faced. I don’t think Inoue has fought a lesser light since about his fifth fight. I can agree that Harada is number one, but I do believe there’s a very good case to put the Monster there as well.
So...a pro-Inoue thread that seeks to exclude Filipino fighters...Have we learned nothing as a people from the third of February of '45 to the third of March of '45?
I'm still on the fence between Fighting Harada and Naoya Inoue. I think Harada has the edge with his wins over Eder Jofre, Pone Kingpetch, Alan Rudkin, Jose Medel and Hiroyuki Ebihara but Inoue's dominance and becoming 2x undisputed cannot be overlooked. Will have to wait until Inoue's career is over but he has a shot to overtake Harada's spot as the greatest East Asian boxer, if he hasn't done so already.
Good point. Harada's resume is quite astonishing. Makes me wonder why Terence Crawford is being credited as the first boxer to become undisputed in two weight classes when that was something Fighting Harada has done in the past.
I think what's most impressive to me about Harada is that had he not been robbed of the official win against Famechon, he'd have been the only man to win the title at Flyweight, Bantam and Feather.
