Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn has made some recent noise for his criticism of Naoya Inoue and his standing among the top pound-for-pound best fighters in the world considering the kind of competition he’s been facing lately. Here in this interview with iFL TV Hearn tries to explain his position while not completely discrediting Inoue.
“I said his year that he has had is not the year of a pound-for-pound star’s resume and what it should look like, Hearn said. “There’s no argument about that…What I’m saying is you can’t fight TJ Doheny and the geezer from last week and say that is a good year of a #3 pound-for-pound star. It’s not.
“Everyone’s on their knees for Naoya Inoue. Who has he fought, right — tell me the standout victories to make him a pound-for-pound #3…Fulton was a good win but he arguably got beat in his last fight. Nery was — you’re talking about #3 pound-for-pound. You’re talking about Oleksandr Usyk who beat every champion at cruiserweight, then moved up and beat Dubois, AJ, and Fury. That’s a pound-for-pound resume.
“Terence Crawford, undisputed at 140, undisputed at 147, 135 world champion, 154 world champion. Even Terence’s resume doesn’t stand out like an Usyk but when you go for Naoya Inoue, I’m not saying he’s not an brilliant fighter, he’s unbelievable, but I just feel like it shouldn’t be a pass to just fight those people in the year.”