Naoya Inoue's place in the barbershop boxing debate

Next to full-blown arguments about who is the greatest basketball player of all time, the best barbershop debates to have are about boxing.

Fisticuffs lends itself well to debate since it's a one-on-one sport where the combatants can state their cases clearly without prejudice. You don't need advanced stats or analytics to tell when one guy has the skills to beat up another guy.

And since boxing has such a deep, storied history that goes back well over a century in the U.S. (and way longer in the UK) there have been plenty of guidelines put in place to help judge a fighters place in that history.

This week on Inside the Ring, Max Kellerman and his guests were talking about a potential fight between super flyweight phenom Jesse Bam Rodriguez and consensus pound-for-pound #1 Naoya Inoue.

While Kellerman believes Bam, who fights Antonio Vargas Saturday, June 13 on DAZN, would beat Inoue in a match, he called Inoue one of the greatest of all time because he has carried himself the right way with the fighters he chooses to step in the ring with.

Some fighters get criticized for hopping weight classes and never beating all the top guys in one class before moving on. And there's also another class of fighters that get criticized for not moving up in weight and only staying where it's comfortable for them.

Inoue has done both, according to Kellerman, cleaning out the top guys in every weight class he has moved to. Still, even with that Hall of Fame resume and his status as an all-time great cemented, Kellerman still picked Bam Rodriguez to beat Inoue.

And the reason he gave was age.

Bam is 26, Inoue is 33. That 7-year difference, plus Bam's own elite skill level, spells trouble for the Monster Inoue, according to Max.

But as long as we're talking all-time greatness, that statement made me realize how great Floyd Mayweather was.

Floyd Mayweather is on a higher level than many all-time greats

Floyd Mayweather Jr. famously retired with an unblemished professional record of 50-0, but before he retired, he also famously fought a young Saul Canelo Alvarez.

Mayweather was often criticized for not fighting opponents when some fans and media thought he should, preferring to fight them on his own schedule.

But even Floyd´s biggest detractors gave him props for fighting Alvarez when he did.

These days, Canelo says he was too young and green when he fought Floyd in 2013. And that is very true: Canelo turned into a different fighter after stepping in the ring with Floyd, apparently learning on the job about the importance of defense from the master of the Philly Shell himself.

But what I never heard was anybody say that Floyd, who had already established himself as an all-time great, was going to lose because of an age difference.

Floyd was never afforded that excuse, despite the fact that he was 36 and Canelo was 23. Canelo is also a much bigger fighter than Floyd. Floyd spent most of his GOAT years campaigning as a natural welterweight (147 lbs).

While the Canelo fight did have a catchweight of 152 lbs, two pounds lighter than where Canelo usually fought at the time, there was no rehydration clause. So after the weigh-in, Canelo was free to weigh as much as he wanted, and he often rehydrated to 170-172 lbs on fight night, according to media reports at the time.

Still, no excuses were afforded to the aging great. If he were truly an all-timer, and there were still doubters, then all of those obstacles wouldn't be a problem. And they weren't.

Mayweather gave Canelo a boxing lesson he would never forget that night.

All of this may be moot, and Inoue may end up beating Bam Rodriguez after all. In a situation opposite to Floyd and Canelo, Bam is two weight classes smaller than Inoue.

But using Inoue's age as an excuse, when he is only 33, just reminds me of how great Floyd Mayweather was and how there are levels to greatness. That doesn't take away from the Monster Inoue, but it does put the barbershop debate about his place in the pantheon into perspective.

Related: Floyd Mayweather/ Manny Pacquiao nostalgia bait feels a little flat

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This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 7:22 AM.