Plenty of boxing people, be they fans, experts, active and retired fighters, have compared Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue to Filipino all-time great Manny Pacquiao. Now, Pac Man says he would very much like to train Inoue, and “supervise” the current super-bantamweight as he goes up in search of more titles at higher weights.
Pacquiao of course made boxing history by becoming the only eight-weight world champion, Pac Man’s accension through the weights truly a remarkable thing. How high Inoue can go has been a subject of great interest just lately, with “The Monster” so far having won world honours at four different weights, with the 30 year old ripping two 122 pound titles from Stephen Fulton in his last outing.
Inoue has spoken of going to featherweight, this in attempt to win a title at a fifth weight, but some people feel he can go higher than that. And if Inoue wishes to try it, Pacquiao says he’d gladly come on board Team-Inoue and assist him.
“I like Naoya,” Pacquiao said when speaking with Little Giant Boxing. “Before he became [multi-weight world champion] I teach him in Japan. Naoya, he’s thinking of moving up in weight divisions. I hope I can teach him and supervise his workout and training. I want to train him and supervise his training if he wants to move up to higher weight divisions.”
It would be quite the team-up if Pacquiao did become Inoue’s assistant trainer and mentor. Pacquiao of course knows how it feels jumping from weight class to weight class, and he knows how to do it right, when to go up and add on weight and when to stay put at a certain weight in an effort at getting fully adapted to a new weight.
Let’s see if Inoue takes Pacquiao up on his offer. As far as “The Monster’s” brilliant showing in the Fulton fight, this where Inoue made a very good fighter look ordinary, Pac Man was as impressed as the rest of the boxing world.
“Fantastic,” Manny said of Inoue’s performance against the unbeaten Fulton. “It was a good performance: fast, quick, strong. Congratulations on your last fight and keep up the good work.”
Inoue fully intends to keep up the good work and he may well see out 2023 as the unified four-belt champion at super-bantamweight, with an Inoue-Marlon Tapales clash likely for November. Tapales, by the way, is Filipino, just like Pac Man.