Roy Jones Jr. Offers Up His Thoughts On Next Pound-For-Pound No. 1 Boxer, And It Might Surprise You

Former world champion Roy Jones Jr. was long believed to be the top pound-for-pound boxer in the world during his prime.

Now that he has left his competitive prime, Jones can sit back and evaluate the boxing world.

Related: Naoya Inoue Next Fight: 3 Opponent Options For ‘The Monster’ Including Sam Goodman

While few argue that Terence Crawford is the current pound-for-pound best, there is discussion on who could overtake him.

Jones, in an interview with All The Smoke Fight, declared his thoughts. The 1994 Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year believes that is Naoya Inoue.

“There’s another tornado brewing over there by the name of Inoue,” Jones said (thanks to Seconds Out for the quotes). “That is a bad dude. Say what you want. I know he way over there in Japan, but that is a bad dude.

“We don’t give him credit cause we don’t see him that much.”

With a perfect 27-0 record to his credit, Inoue has scored 24 knockouts. He has held world titles in four weight classes, and the only undisputed super bantamweight champion.

The 31-year-old knocked out Luis Nery back in May to defend those titles.

“I think that dude really is pound-for-pound No. 1,” Jones said. “He just don’t have the competition at that weight class to get it right now. And the United States don’t know him cause we don’t have big fighters in his weight class.

“The one that we did have (vs. Stephen Fulton) look what he did to him.”

Inoue is set to return to action on September 3 in Japan vs. TJ Doheny. His undisputed titles will be on the line that evening.

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