Manny Pacquiao's Target Opponent Picks Naoya Inoue Over Filipino Boxer In Pound-For-Pound Rankings

Manny Pacquiao's target opponent, Mikey Garcia, excluded himself and the eight-division titleholder in his pound-for-pound rankings and instead put Naoya Inoue on the list.

In a recent talk with Elie Seckbach of EsNews, Garcia was asked to name his top five pound-for-pound fighters at present. The reigning WBC Diamond welterweight champ, who was getting his hands wrapped for a training session at the gym during the chat, came up with an unusual list, which included 27-year-old super bantamweight champion Inoue.

Normally, when pro boxers are asked to rank their pound-for-pound fighters, they include themselves on the list. And considering that Garcia fights in the same division as Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., who were ranked by BoxRec as the top two greatest fighters of all time, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the pair would be mentioned.

Instead, the California native acknowledged the accomplishments of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Terence “Bud” Crawford and Tyson Fury.

“Today? I’ll probably put Canelo in there, Fury in there,” Garcia said. “Crawford will be up there.”

In terms of accolades, Alvarez, Fury and Crawford would all be considered deserving to be hailed as top pound-for-pound fighters. However, Garcia also picked Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk as the other two names to complete his list.

“Who’s the other, smaller Asian? [Naoya] Inoue?” he continued. “For pound-for-pound right? I think I’ll probably put, what’s the other light heavyweight? [Oleksandr] Usyk. He’s moving up to heavyweight. He’ll be up there.”

Garcia’s only loss came at the hands of Errol Spence Jr. He was able to regain his belt by decisively beating Jessie Vargas in a 12-round fight on Feb. 29 to claim the then-vacant WBC Diamond welterweight title.

After dismantling Vargas, Garcia immediately started calling out Pacquiao. Like most welterweights, the 32-year-old is confident he “can take Pacquiao out” inside the ring. With a professional record of 40 wins and only one loss, Garcia presents a strong case to be Pacquiao’s next opponent.

Fortunately, Freddie Roach previously revealed that the feeling is mutual as Pacquiao and his team are also considering a possible fight with Garcia.