Boxing’s great P4P debate reared its head again on Monday following that epic Naoya Inoue vs Luis Nery showdown in Tokyo, Japan.
‘The Monster’ successfully defended his super-bantamweight world titles with another brilliant victory, recovering from the first knockdown of his career to roar to a sixth-round KO win.
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Inoue was on his back in Round 1 courtesy of a Nery left hook, but he posted three knockdowns of his own in response, the final one a highlight-reel finish with his blistering right hand.
There was no doubt among the huge 55,000 Tokyo Dome crowd about who is the best boxer in the world these days, but not everybody agrees.
The much-respected Ring magazine currently has ‘The Monster’ only at #2 on its list – behind welterweight king Terence Crawford.
We will see if those rankings change when The Ring makes its updates in May, but in the meantime the debate rages on. And now it includes Turki Alalshikh – the man currently transforming boxing with that massive investment from the Saudi Arabia General Entertainment Authority.
Turki Alalshikh on P4P rankings
Alalshikh took to social media in the aftermath of Inoue’s latest virtuoso performance to share a screenshot of the Boxrec rankings – which have Inoue at the top of the pile.
He wrote: “Inoue is a great boxer, but Crawford is the pound-for-pound number one. I don’t know how the ranking works or if there’s a clear criteria, but it seems like there are some personal opinions and inaccuracies involved.”
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So we know who His Excellency believes is the #1 right now, and now we know he believes the system doesn’t really work. It seems he also has plans to change all of that.
He went on: “I believe that boxing needs one entity to evaluate with transparency and credibility. Soon, I will support a project for the matter…!”
We have no idea yet what he means by that, but it seems he has thoughts of providing one unequivocal barometer for current boxing greatness.
We await updates with interest, and in the meantime fight fans, Crawford or Inoue?
