Bob Arum has been involved in boxing for nearly sixty years and has worked with some of the biggest names in the sport during that time – but it’s one of his current stable that the veteran promoter says is the best of the lot.
Arum is the co-founder and CEO of Top Rank and has promoted fights with the likes of Muhammad Ali, Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, and Roberto Durán amongst many others.
Those fighters have long since hung up the gloves but it’s a current world champion that the 92-year-old believes is the best he’s ever seen.
Speaking on the Jai McAllister YouTube channel, Arum didn’t hold back in his praise for Japanese sensation, Naoya Inoue.
“Inoue is not only pound-for-pound the best in the world, Inoue is the best fighter I’ve ever seen.
The best I’ve ever seen – no matter what weight category, or anything, I have never ever seen in the almost sixty years I’ve been in boxing seen anything like Inoue.”
Inoue is a four-weight world champion, winning titles from light-flyweight all the way up to super-bantamweight and is only one of three men to be undisputed in two weight classes in the four belt era – with Olekesandr Usyk and Terence Crawford being the other two.
Inoue’s power hasn’t waned as he’s moved up through the weights, boasting an incredible record of 27 wins from 27 fights with 24 coming inside the distance.
The 31-year-old is currently fighting at 122lbs but Turki Alalshikh, the man behind big time boxing in Saudi Arabia, has made it clear that a mega fight against current 135lb champion, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, is on his dream list of fights to make.
