Previously, the Japanese won by KO in the 11th round in Tokyo, establishing himself as the undisputed bantamweight champion. He received eight first-place votes from an ESPN panel of 21 experts, bringing him up to No. 1 closer to Terence Crawford as a result of the victory.
"I moved Inoue to the top spot because he's been the most dominant fighter of the past year - partly because he's actually taken on big fights, followed through, and stopped his opponents," ESPN writer Michael Rothstein said. "He's knocked out his last five opponents and has been consistent along the way, too. In a year where too many top fighters ducked their biggest challenges, Inoue annihilated the best his division has to offer."
On the other hand, Errol Spence Jr. has lost some support due to his lack of activity. It was really close to happening in 2022 to face Crawford to unify all four welterweight world belts, but things fell through at the last minute.
So, all in all, the ESPN boxing rankings now look like that:
- Terence Crawford
- Naoya Inoue
- Oleksandr Usyk ↑(4)
- Errol Spence ↓(3)
- Saul Alvarez
- Tyson Fury
- Dmitry Bivol
- Artur Beterbiev ↑(9)
- Devin Haney ↓(8)
- Shakur Stevenson
Image Credit: DAZN