Floyd Mayweather has weighed in on the pound-for-pound best in the world debate, and fired some shots at Naoya Inoue in the process.
The hard-hitting Japanese fighter recently became a four-division world champion with a dominant knockout performance over America’s Stephen Fulton, immediately adding to his case for the best fighter on the planet.
Later that week, Terence Crawford would stop Errol Spence Jr in a one-sided affair that saw him awarded that prestigious title by many.
Speaking to FightHype, Mayweather gave his opinion on the recent two-man conversation for top spot before suggesting Inoue needs to come to America for more rigorous drug testing.
“I’m not gonna sit here and say that Inoue deserves to be over Terence Crawford. I’m not gonna say that. Absolutely not. I will always, always stand behind my people first.
You know what the boxing world gonna say? ‘Inoue did this! Inoue did that!’ Okay, that’s cool. What I need Inoue to do is do like we do over here in the US. I need him to come fight in the US, random blood and urine testing.”
Inoue has competed in the States three times in his 25 fight career as well as one fight in Glasgow, Scotland. His other 21 bouts have taken place in his native Japan.
He has been enrolled in VADA testing in the past, most recently the fight with Nonito Donaire in 2022, as per the agency’s website.
‘Money’ Mayweather – who himself is considered one of the best to ever do it – does reserve some praise for ‘The Monster’, and would like to see him face Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
“I think he’s a helluva fighter. I don’t wanna take nothing away from him. And I like him cause I see he take a lot of my stuff from my playbook. But it’s okay cause boxers, you’re supposed to. You’re supposed to take from the greats.
What I would like to see is if he could fight Gervonta at a catchweight. That would be a helluva fight.”
Inoue is all but confirmed to move into an undisputed super-bantamweight contest with Marlon Tapales next.