Tyson Fury’s US promoter Todd duBoef believes Naoya Inoue is head and heels above Oleksandr Usyk in class.
The Ukrainian slickster became the first undisputed heavyweight champion in 25 years last month when he defeated Fury via split decision in Saudi Arabia.
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Usyk is pound-for-pound number one following his win over FuryCredit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
In doing so, he was crowned the third male two-weight undisputed champion of the four-belt era alongside Inoue and Terence Crawford – having previously unified the cruiserweight division in 2018.
The victory saw him shoot to the top of the coveted Ring Magazine pound-for-pound rankings.
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But Duboef believes his client, Inoue, deserves to occupy the No. 1 spot.
“I think Naoya Inoue is the best in the world, Oleksandr Usyk is not even close,” the Top Rank President told talkSPORT.com.
“People have this infatuation with pound-for-pound but those rankings are easily moved by the last performance.
“If I showed you round five of Fury vs Usyk and I said ‘he’s the number one pound-for-pound guy’ you would go ‘What? How can he be number one, he’s being hit with every f***ing uppercut.
“‘His head is up his hands are down’ that’s my opinion. We haven’t really seen that with Inoue, I mean we saw a flash knockdown in his last fight but that was nothing.
“I’m not knocking Usyk but you did see him get hit by a body shot in the Dubois fight which people thought was controversial.
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Inoue became the undisputed WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO super-bantamweight world champion in DecemberCredit: Naoki Fukuda/Top Rank
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duBoef thinks Inoue is a class apart from everyone else when it comes to boxing abilityCredit: GETTY
“I think Crawford is a terrific fighter but I think he offers a different game to what Inoue does.
“Inoue has masterfully conquered every division and takes on everyone.
“He has a confidence about him and the way he dismantles people is really unique.”
Inoue is currently ranked No.2 by the Ring Magazine with Crawford one place behind him.
The Japanese sensation defeated Marlon Tapales last December to become undisputed at super-bantamweight, one year removed from his reign of supremacy over the bantamweight division.
In June 2022, he became the first Japanese boxer to top the pound-for-pound ratings but has since slipped down the list despite continuing to bulldoze through his opposition.
