Naoya Inoue's Bantamweight Reign (2018 — 2022) Accomplishments Winner — World Boxing Super Series Became first Undisputed Bantamweight Champion in the 4 belt era KO'd all 4 major beltholders Inoue needed just 47 rounds to clean out the division Jamie McDonnell TKO1 Undefeated in over decade Rated #2 by Ring Never been stopped Juan Carlos Payano KO1 Had only 1 MD loss Rau'shee Warren Never been stopped Emmanuel Rodriguez KO2 Undefeated IBF Champion Nonito Donaire UD12 WBA Champion Coming off of highlight reel KOs over Burnett and Young Stopped only once by the much bigger Nicholas Walters Jason Moloney KO7 Lost only once to Emmanuel Rodriguez Never been stopped Michael Dasmarinas KO3 Bum Aran Dipaen TKO8 Bum, but never been stopped Nonito Donaire TKO2 WBC Champion Donaire was coming off ofhighlight reel KOs of Oubaali and Gaballo Completely wiped out anddestroyed by Inoue Paul Butler KO11 WBO Champion
Keying off the 50 Greatest Bantamweight lists by @McGrain... 01 - Ruben Olivares 02 - Manuel Ortiz 03 - Eder Jofre 04 - Fighting Harada 05 - Pete Herman 06 - Lionel Rose 07 - Pal Moore 08 - Kid Williams 09 - Al Brown 10 - Carlos Zarate 11 - Rafael Herrera 12 - Bud Taylor 13 - Joe Lynch 14 - Johnny Coulon 15 - Chucho Castillo 16 - Lou Salica 17 - Terry McGovern 18 - Sixto Escobar 19 - Jeff Chandler 20 - Jimmy Carruthers Inoue's trajectory is very similar to Carruthrers, in that he was undefeated at bantamweight and dominated most everyone he faced. Donaire might be a more relevant name than Toweel, think I might edge Inoue there. So, #20's the floor based on the way this list shakes out. But... ...McGrain also said when rating Rafael Marquez and Orlando Canizales (#25 and #26 respectively) that both of them would have rated higher had they completely unified and would have landed in the top 15. Applying that same logic here, I'd say that Inoue could land Top 15 since he did face his main challenger twice and improved upon the result in the second fight. That matters. Can he go higher...? Hmm... I'm looking at Zarate and thinking that Inoue's level of comp on the whole isn't all that overshadowed by CZ's. Zarate blasted out a good champion in Martinez, beat his main contemporary in Zamora, and has a nice win over Davila. After that...It gets kinda thin. I'd listen to an argument for Inoue being better than Zarate, at any rate. So...anyway, top fifteen for sure based on the criteria of Matt's list. Maybe a little higher, depending on the argument made.
I say he's a brilliant, brilliant boxer and great to watch. Specifically at BW, it's a tremendous achievement to clean out the division in just 9 fights. I've done top 20 all time lists in the original 8 weight divisions based on fights contested in and around the weight division in question only. I.e. ignores outcome in predicted "H2H" fights that didn't happen and ignores fights contested in other weight divisions. When I come to evaluate Innoue's standing at BW, placing him will be tricky. 9-0 at the weight with past prime Donaire his best wins, there are other BWs in history with both higher quality and quantity win resumes, but none who were more dominant over the best of their era. I don't tend to rank fighters H2H, if I did I suspect Innoue would be right towards the top at BW under current rules, including day before weigh ins.
That's an excellent post, Drew. Innoue certainly challenges one's ranking criteria. Depth and quality of win resume as your sole criteria and it's tough to argue him top 15, maybe not even top 20. If the extent to which he separated himself from the best BWs of his era, albeit in his relatively brief stay there, was your sole criteria, he would rank much higher. Great fighter.
Here's a post I made that might shed some insight into Inoue's Bantamweight reign in regards to Donaire: Prime Donaire was one dimensional in the sense that he leaned almost exclusively on his left hook to win fights. The Donaire that Inoue fought both times was at peak maturity in terms of ring IQ, patient, and boxed far more intelligently. And he was more disciplined as well with his weight management. Leading up to the Inoue fight, Donaire said that he was in the best physical condition of his career and that he didn't allow himself to blow up between fights. He even said that he was walking around close to 150 in between fights, but was well ahead of schedule for every fight at his return to bantamweight. Furthermore, Donaire was just as durable and only a tick slower in speed. Remember, he basically had 4 highlight reel KOs bookending the Inoue fights, so it was a dramatic and spectacular return to form. The only basis of comparison that we have is Narvaez. Prime Donaire was completely neutralized by Narvaez's defense and negative style and he wasn't able to do anything. 7-0 Inoue in training wheels still jumped 2 divisions and destroyed him in 2 rounds. I think the Donaire rematch would have played out exactly the same way with any version of either man. I don't take much from the first match because Inoue had his eye socket broken VERY EARLY in the fight and still schooled Donaire. We saw Donaire return to form in his second campaign at 118. His destruction of WBC title holder Oubaali was a savage display of speed, counterpunching, and explosiveness. And then he leveled Gaballo with a crazy body shot. That's 4-0, 4 highlight reel KOs, 3 undefeated fighters, and 2 title holders. Basically, Nonito's 4 fight KO streak at his return to 118 was as dominant as any 4 fight streak in his entire career. In my opinion, Inoue's wins (first should have been a TKO when Nonito turned his back from the ref and ran) over Donaire should be regarded highly with less emphasis on Donaire's age as he was the clear #2 and was completely dominant.
Thanks! I think those wins over Donaire will look better as time goes on. Maybe that win over Rodriguez, too. In nine fights at the weight, he did beat his number one twice, plus three top five contenders on top of that. This division may not be a Golden Era, but that's still quite impressive given his short tenure. He did about as well as you can do given the time he spent there. And, since there's precedent for guys being ranked highly despite not spending a whole lot of time in a division, I think top 20 minimum sounds just about right.
Thanks. I've followed Donaire's career carefully since Darchinyan 1 in 2007 and am comfortable in my assessment of him, 9 days before his 37th birthday and then aged 39, as being past his absolute prime. As all lower weight fighters in history were at those ages. Still, excellent wins over the next best BW in the world.
Agreed. He definitely ranks as my BW GOAT out of those fighters with less than 10 fights in that division;-)
I think he's a great fighter, possibly the best today. He'd be hell in dream fights. I've seldom if ever seen anyone do so much damage to the body in my life.
I don't understand this talk, about how difficult it is to rank Inoue at BW - due to his short time and few fights in this division! In the old days you were a BW, if you weighed above 112 but no more than 118. If we apply the same rule to Inoue, he has been fighting at BW for the last 8 years - in which time he has engaged in 17 world title bouts. Not too shabby, if you ask me!
I agree having a clear criteria and applying it consistently is a key prequisite for devising credible rankings. I don't consider Innoue's Super Fly title fights as contributing towards his BW legacy, because they weren't fought at BW. I'm not claiming that logic to be definitive, it is just what makes the most sense to me. When I completed my all time top 20 in the original 8 weight divisions, I made an allowance for slightly over the weight contests in non title fights. E.g., a non title fight between 2 x LHWs weighing 178lbs seemed better attributed to LHW than HW (or CW in the modern era). I considered a non title fight contested at anything up to 115lbs, as being contested at Fly. So, by my criteria, Innoue doesn't lose out at BW, relative to his predecessors from the pre-Super Fly era who had fights contested at >112lbs and <115lb, which I attributed to Fly. He does lose out at Fly and gain at Super Fly, though, if that makes sense.
It's too bad that Chocolito refused to fight Inoue when HBO was building up that fight. And Estrada, Cuadras, and Rungvisai didn't seem all that interested in testing themselves against the Monster. How do you feel those fights go? I personally think he knocks them all out.
