Stevenson on rank p4p inoue: too many “no-names”

Shakur Stevenson says he does not have Naoya Inoue in his top 3 pound-for-pound list because he has fought “no-names” since his one good victory against Stephen ‘Cool Boy Steph’ Fulton in 2023.

Stevenson makes an excellent point. Inoue (30-0, 27 ko) should be nowhere close to the top 3 based on the flawed opposition he has been paddling her record against. Even putting Naoya on the list would go over the top. The top 10 should be for fighters who venture with their careers.

P4P: Inoue “No-Name” enemies

– Ramon Cardenas
– Ye Joon who
– TJ Doheny
– Luis nery
– Marlon Tapales

Inoue has been slowly fighting against Murodjon Akhmadaliev and Junto Nakato. Both are in his weight class and around them, and yet he is not chosen to fight. What does that tell you? Naoya should have fought those guys a long time ago instead of the opposition in the middle of the way he has been feasting on.

Stevenson excludes top 3 inoue

“Top-for-pound, I would go with Bud Crawford. I like Bivol. I don’t think people give him credit. He two of the biggest names in the field of boxing. He dominated those two fights (Artur Beterbiev),” Shakur Stevenson told the Ariel Helwani channel. “#3, I’m going to go with usyk, and I know it can’t really be a pound-for-pound.”

I have to disagree with Shakur on Terence Crawford on #1 weight-for-pound. He hasn’t beaten anyone well enough to be on the top 15 lists. He is arguably lost his final battle against Israil Madrimov.

“With Inoue, he had that same battle with Cool Boy Steph (Stephen Fulton), and did well in that fight. It looked good. They crucified me for fighting no -name fighters and fighter who don’t know. I felt like he was doing the same,” said Shakur about Naoya Inoue.

Fulton was too weak to do much in his struggle with Inoue. That was a mistake in power above all. Inoue should have moved to 126 after that fight.

“That’s the case,” said Stevenson when he is told that there are not so many fighters where Inoue is a fight that is good enough for him to get quality names on his resume. Junto Nakatani, that’s the battle that needs to be made. If he beats that guy, I definitely put it at the top.

“Give me 10, 9,” said Stevenson about where he would have placed himself on the pound-for-pound list.