Manny Pacquiao is viewed as one of the most iconic fighters of the 21st century.
‘Pac-Man’ remains the only eight-division champion in boxing history, having claimed world honours from flyweight up to super-welterweight.
He is the only boxer to hold world championships across four decades, having done so in the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s.
Pacquiao’s long list of accolades has also seen him defeat fighters such as Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto, Tim Bradley and Keith Thurman.
Despite all of that success, the man that promoted him throughout a lot of his career has now named the fighter that he feels has surpassed the status of the Filipino superstar.
Bob Arum had Pacquiao under the Top Rank banner for a number of years, but he told Sky Sports that he believes current Japanese icon Naoya Inoue has become ‘more legendary’ than ‘Pac-Man.’
“Boxers are unique. Manny Pacquiao was a great, great champion, was great for boxing. His career is legendary. Naoya Inoue’s career is even more legendary because unlike Manny he has gone through one division after another without losing a fight.”
Arum also praised ‘The Monster’s skillset in comparison to ‘Pac-Man’s.
“I think that if it comes to the skillset, from a technical boxing standpoint, Inoue has it way over Manny Pacquiao. That’s not to denigrate Pacquiao but it’s just to say that in Inoue we have not only a ferocious knockout puncher but a very, very well trained technical fighter.”
Inoue returned to action on Friday as he defended his undisputed super-bantamweight titles with a dominant fourth round knockout victory over late replacement Ye Joon Kim.
