Bob Arum is a Hall of Fame boxing promoter who has worked with the very best in the business since the sixties.
The New York native promoted his first world title fight – Muhammad Ali vs George Chuvalo – in ’66 and has been involved in around 500 since.
He was instrumental in the careers of Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao, the sport’s only eight-division world champion.
More recently, Arum has worked with Shakur Stevenson, Terence Crawford, Tyson Fury and Vasiliy Lomachenko. It is no doubt a hard task for the boxing businessman to pick the best he has promoted, but he has managed to do so.
In an interview with the Jay McAllister channel, the veteran promoter gave that honour to one 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 an undefeated four-weight world champion with a 90% knockout ratio, all the more impressive because the divisions he has conquered so far typically don’t host such power punchers.
In 2024 he has knocked out both Luis Nery and TJ Doheny to retain his undisputed super-bantamweight title. He will make the third defence of the year on December 24 against Sam Goodman, promoted by Arum at the Ariake Arena, Koto-Ku.
Inoue is one of just three four-belt era two-weight undisputed champions alongside Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk. The three elite operators are found at the top of most pound-for-pound lists.
