Naoya Inoue

Naoya Inoue (井上 尚弥), Inoue Naoya; born (10 April 1993) is a Japanese professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes, and is one of only three male boxers to become the undisputed champion in two weight classes in the "four-belt era" (alongside Terence Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk). Nicknamed "The Monster" (怪物 Kaibutsu), he is widely regarded as the greatest Japanese boxer of all time and one of the greatest boxers of his era. Inoue is known for his exceptional punching power and excellent technical skill, possessing a knockout-to-win percentage of 81.82%.

He is the first and only boxer to win the undisputed championship at super bantamweight, having held all four major world titles since 2023, as well as the Ring magazine title. Previously he held the undisputed championship and the Ring title at bantamweight between 2022 and 2023. He became the first undisputed bantamweight champion since Enrique Pinder in 1972, and the first boxer in history to do so in the four-belt era.

Earlier in his career, Inoue held the World Boxing Council (WBC) light flyweight title in 2014, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior bantamweight title from 2014 to 2018, and the World Boxing Association (WBA) bantamweight title (Unified version) from 2018 to 2019. He won the 2018–19 World Boxing Super Series bantamweight tournament.

Since May 2026, he has been ranked as the No. 1 pound for pound boxer in the world by The Ring, TBRB, ESPN, and BoxRec.

In June 2022, Inoue became the first Japanese boxer to be ranked No. 1 in the world, pound for pound, by The Ring. He was named Fighter of the Year in 2023 by The Ring, the Boxer Writers Association of America, and ESPN.