Inoue Not a Big Crossover Star as Pacquiao (Yet or Ever)
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 26 Jan 2025
Back in the early 2000s when I was still working in a state firm involved in provincial water supply, we used to have foreign consultants working for us and host visiting foreign study delegations hoping to learn from us and almost always, the one person they asked about was Manny Pacquiao.
Many came from countries in Europe not really so much into boxing such as Norway, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands as football or soccer was and is their favorite sport. This was a clear testimony of how globally famous Manny was at that time though I believe he is still known in many places in the world today. Such makes Manny Pacquiao one of the biggest crossover sports stars to ever come out of Asia, if not the biggest.
Bob Arum and his sycophants in the so called international boxing media can sing paean all they want to Naoya Inoue whom they say is the new Pacquiao, even claiming Inoue is the better version but the fact remains the so called Japanese Monster has not yet achieved Manny's global popularity despite his recent feats. Or will he ever.
We are basically just talking about global scale popularity and familiarity here.
We are not coming close to talking of fame such as achieved by Manny that translated him into a commercial success including him sharing with Floyd Mayweather the record for the biggest gross pay per view bout in boxing history. That begs the questions: Successful as Inoue may have been, what is his biggest purse in his biggest fight in Japan? How many commercial endorsements does he have in and outside of his homeland?
For a while, his camp and Arum have us believe that Naoya is fine fighting in Japan where he is adored and he could fill the biggest arena to the rafters. The reasoning is why should Inoue even fight in the US or elsewhere when he could earn equal or even better fighting in his home country?
Now the answer is becoming more and more obvious to them especially to Naoya and Bob Arum.
No number of victories, including knockout wins against literally have been and virtual tomato cans as Ye recently, and no amount of praise release by Arum and the fawning press could make Naoya Inoue a household name in the US and a crossover global sports star in the manner of Manny Pacquiao.
It is no wonder that after disposing of the poor South Korean replacement, Naoya is already bandying about his next "great fight" in Las Vegas and of another big bout in Saudi Arabia.
But then, against whom?
Former unified WBA-IBF super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev has been badgering Inoue for a fight since middle of last year. But his Japanese principals deem the Uzbek as not familiar to Japanese fans to help Naoya lure them in to fill an arena. So last September, they settled for the more familiar TJ Doheny, the man who was beaten by the man (Danny Roman) whom Akhmadaliev beat for the then IBF title.
Apparently, Akhmadaliev is still out of consideration as the name being bandied about by the Inoue camp for the Las Vegas gig is that of a certain Picasso, not the famous painter but another obscurantist Mexican fighter who allegedly holds the top in the list of the WBC contenders.
For the planned Saudi big fight, this early Naoya himself has ruled out fellow Japanese emerging big name Junto Nakatani as they allegedly have priorities apart from one another in the medium term.
Another elephant in the room Naoya is wont to ignore is Filipino Johnriel Casimero who in the bantamweight he managed to skirt a confrontation with in the US in 2020 through the machination of Arum and the convenient alibi of the then long pandemic travel restrictions. Casimero has since been badgering Inoue for their unfinished business. But Naoya continues ignoring him despite Johnriel checking most of the boxes in terms of quality as a fighter and familiarity with Japanese and especially American fans.
So who is Naoya and his camp eyeing as opponent apart from Picasso whom they expect to vault Inoue as the next big crossover boxing star from Asia after Manny Pacquiao?
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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