Naoya Inoue “井上 尚弥”
Naoya Inoue (井上 尚弥, Inoue Naoya, born 10 April 1993) is a Japanese professional boxer. Nicknamed "The Monster", Inoue is known for his timing, speed, punching power, and body-punching ability, having a knockout ratio of 88.4%. He is a four-division world champion, and only the second male boxer (following Terence Crawford) to become the undisputed champion in two different weight classes in the four-belt era. He is the current, first, and only undisputed super bantamweight world champion, holding the WBC and WBO super bantamweight titles since July 2023, and the WBA (Super), IBF, and Ring super bantamweight titles since December 2023. He is also the former undisputed bantamweight world champion, having held the WBA (Super), IBF, and Ring magazine titles between 2019 and January 2023, and the WBC and WBO titles between 2022 and January 2023. He previously held the WBA (Regular) bantamweight title from 2018 to 2019, the WBO super flyweight title from 2014 to 2018, and the WBC light flyweight title in 2014.
As of August 2023, he is ranked as the world's second best active boxer, pound for pound, by The Ring, Boxing Writers Association of America, Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB), ESPN, and fourth by BoxRec. He is also ranked as the world's best active super bantamweight by The Ring, TBRB, ESPN, and BoxRec. He is the only Japanese fighter in history to be ranked No. 1 pound for pound by The Ring, and was named Fighter of the Year in 2023 by the ESPN, The Ring and Boxing Writers Association of America .
