There are plenty of interesting fantasy matches you could make with Inoue. This isn't one of them. Duran by KO.
Duran by demolition, destruction, beat down whatever you want to call it. Duran anywhere near 135 was an animal, fighting a guy who has never fought at that weight, or faced anyone in the same stratosphere at Duran. I’m not sure Inoue would be in the top 10 fighters Duran fought let alone beat him.
If both were naturally the same size, I would go with Inoue since he does everything better than Duran.
Inoue was weighed as 131 in ring vs McDonnel who weighed 144. Inoue is clearly much larger now, likely 135. As far as 5'5 not being able to fight at 135 back in the day, you have 5'5 CWs being listed as arguments for why Holyfield is better than Usyk at CW. There's currently a 5'2 LW rated in the top 5.
They had weigh-ins on morning of the fights in Duran's time, right? I believe fighters were still "cutting" and gaining some weight. I heard Leonard say He was gaining some 5-7 lbs after weighing in - don't remember exactly, I'd think young Duran would gain a bit more - even if was nowhere near the crazy amounts that We see today. Maybe some historicans can correct me on that. Either way, Inoue will be moving up to 122 soon most likely - so I guess matching him up against young Duran, let's say from the fight with Marcel at 130, is not too far-fetch.
Yeah, he actually probably did cut 5-7 pounds, so he would be a little undersized. I was considering waiting to create the thread after Inoue had won at 122, but when I got the idea in my head I didn't want to wait.
Regardless on how much he weighs on fight night I still think it's farfetched to match up Inoue against an ATG LW like Duran. Just because he weighs around that weight doesn't mean he's going to be just as effective against actual 130-135 lb fighters. We don't even know how would do against the top fighters at 122 or 126 lbs. It's way too soon to be talking about how Inoue does against any top LW in general. Also, regarding the 5'5 CW that was mentioned (which I'm assuming you're referring to Dwight Muhammad Qawi), Qawi is a much naturally bigger sized man with heavier bone structure. Height doesn't mean much but muscle mass does. Are you telling me that he should be challenging guys like Shakur Stevenson or Devon Haney for their titles just because he weighs in around 130ish lb on fight night?
No, because Stevenson and Haney are even bigger on fight night. He's operating on the premise that fighters' billed weights in the modern era are deceptive because of the advantages in rules and techniques available to them, which is true to a certain extent. But this, in and of itself, cannot be taken at face value because the fighters from the past who weighed similar to Inoue in the ring were not forced down to bantamweight.
I think Inoue is currently the best fighter in the world. That being said, I would give him less than a 50% chance to beat Wilfredo Gomez at 122 and I give Gomez absolutely no chance of beating Duran. The whole conversation here seems to be related to the weight of 135. This is a bit irrelevant. First of all, it is quite unlikely that Duran ever weighed 135 on fight night. More importantly, Monster would be a decided underdog against today's best at 130, Shakur Stevenson, let alone the possible GOAT at 135, Roberto Duran. I bring this up because Stevenson probably weighs about the same on fight night as Duran did in the 1970s. Duran would brutalize Inoue.
