Can Naoya Inoue surpass Bud?

It's extremely close right now. It's pretty much splitting hairs between those two for best of the 2010's-2020's era.

Inoue 26-0-0 (21 ko's) in world title bouts, world titles at 108,115,118,122, undisputed at 118 & 122

Bud 20-0-0 (15 ko's) in world title bouts, world titles at 135,140,147,154,168, undisputed at 140,147 & 168

 

Who has the better resume when all things are considered?

 

I would lean towards Naoya Inoue. I think he fought better fighters on average throughout his divisions than Bud. They're both my favorites of their era (2010's-2020's), with Usyk, Loma, and Chocolatito the rest of my top 5 favorites. Now we are in a new era (2020-2-2030's) and Bam, Boots, Shakur, Collazo and I'm hoping Itauma will have tons of success.

 

Crawford has been chronically overlooked and underrated for nearly a decade, especially by casual fans, then totally disliked after he finally obtained his career-defining wins, strange to watch something like this play out. Bud was avoided for years, and with good reason. Similar to Golovkin. We will never know how great they actually were because promoters were terrified to put their best fighters in with them until they had no choice, and they were either slowing down slightly (Spence) or they tried to age them out, like Canelo did with Golovkin, and still should've lost the first fight.

Inoue has benefitted from being revered in Japan and by hardcore fans, but being somewhat of an unknown quantity on the global scene for years. There's this bizarre stigma, particularly amongst North American & European fighters, that Japanese aren't on their level. It meant the likes of Fulton, Nery, and Jamie McDonnell went over there full of hubris and got absolutely splattered all over the place, Inoue didn't have that same aura as Crawford did until very recently. Crawford always had it because he was more visible to the American market, and it hampered him, and has made his resume worse than Inoue's.

Inoue is already clear of him in my eyes. The Nakatani win being the deciding factor. As somebody else has pointed out, Inoue is closer to the upper rung of 21st century fighters like Pacquiao and Mayweather, rather than the likes of Usyk and Crawford in the rung below.

 

didnt even read any of the replies nor the op, just replying after seeing the ridiculous title. Crawford was N.E.V.E.R. ahead of Inoue E.V.E.R. in his entire career. Blasphemy.

Pound for Pound dumbest thread Ive ever seen

 

Only other loss Canelo should have is GGG1? What do you mean 3-4 more losses? Best I can do for Lara is a draw. His fight was pathetic.

 

Inoue is over Usyk and Crawford.

Usyk gets too much credit for his heavyweight wins over AJ and Fury, both of whom were clearly past their best and still had competitive fights with him. Compare that to prime 118 Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales, whom Inoue destroyed with ease.

Crawford has the two best wins between them in Canelo and Spence. "Car crash" Spence was still better than everyone else in the division besides Crawford, and Canelo was past his best, but he was still the No. 1 guy at 168. However, Crawford fights once a year. Inoue normally fights 2+ times a year, and last year he fought four times, with three of those wins coming against very good competition which easily surpasses having one great win. Uysk is also inactive and cherrypicked a unrank 1-0 fighter, which took him a year to do.

 

No.

 

Technically anyone can surpass anyone.

If Inoue moved up and beat Shakur Stevenson for example, yes he’d surpass Crawford, but do I see Inoue surpassing Crawford in his career? No.

Also, Crawford had a better style for longevity, whereas Inoue’s style typically starts declining quickly at 35 assuming not too much damage.

 

If he beats bam and then moves up to 126 and beats either Espinoza or shu shu, then absolutely. He's already pretty close but with 2 of these wins, it wouldn't even be an argument.

 

I think overall resume and wins, Inoue already has a pretty good case on overall quality

Crawford was somewhat held back by Top Rank and could not get certain fights before ultimately getting Spence and Canelo

Crawford has an advantage in the elite win category. I don't think Inoue has a Spence on his resume an undefeated established champion viewed as an immediate rival. And he does not have a Canelo either, P4P type guy still seen as a top threat given Canelo was undisputed. The first Donaire fight is sort of along those lines but Inonue did not dominate Donaire to the extent that Crawford dominated Canelo

I guess my point is Crawford has the higher highs but Inoue has the more consistent path

 

Crawford has a resume besides Canelo and Spence? Who knew?

 

Probably the greatest of all time? A guy who best wins are "a guy who got knocked out by Andy Ruiz and a guy who lost to an MMA novice." Those were your words not mine.

That's greater than what Langford, Armstrong, Robinson, Charles, Ross, Duran, Canzoneri, etc did?

ok.

Somehow 3 wins in 2 years made him go in your mind from "I guess I'll give him p4p number 1 currently" to "OMG THE GREATEST EVER!!!"