LOS ANGELES – As the man who once maintained an extended reign as boxing’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter, Manny Pacquiao has kept a sharp eye on his successors.

Of all of those who’ve followed the now 46-year-old eight-division champion, Pacquiao has developed a fondness for Japan’s unbeaten four-division champion Naoya Inoue 30-0 (27 KOs).

In a conversation with PPV.COM Tuesday while promoting his July 19 return to the ring against WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios Jnr, Pacquiao 62-8-2 (39 KOs) hailed Inoue, 32, as his favorite active fighter.

“He has speed, power, movement,” Pacquiao said. “I like him because he moves so fast and never stays in one corner. That’s a boxer. That’s what you’re supposed to do in boxing.”

Inoue last appeared in the ring May 4 in Las Vegas, when he came off the deck to drop and eventually stop Ramon Cardenas early in the eighth round. Cardenas stunningly floored Inoue in the second, but the unbeaten and undisputed junior featherweight champion dropped the Texan in the seventh and forced the stoppage with a relentless flurry one round later. 

The victory moves Inoue, the 2023 Fighter of the Year, towards a WBA title consolidation bout with interim titlist and former unified 122lbs titlist Murodjon “M.J.” Akhmadaliev on September 14 in Japan. 

Inoue may also be bound for a late 2025 bout in Saudi Arabia, furthering his chances for a second Fighter of the Year award.

Inoue told BoxingScene following the Cardenas victory that he would only consider moving up to featherweight if his body could no longer allow him to make 122lbs.

Pacquiao won belts from flyweight to junior middleweight. His incredible achievements span eight weight divisions over more than twenty years. That very legacy will be honored this Sunday when he will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y.

“I study boxing. I see boxing as a science. To be able to be a world champion or to fight as a champion in [multiple] divisions, you must be able to be always moving,” Pacquiao said in praising Inoue’s growth from 108 lbs to 122lbs.

“It’s not easy for an opponent to fight a style like that, where the fighter is always moving – everywhere, to all the corners and side to side.”

When asked about his major advantage over Barrios, Pacquiao said “movement,” which allows him to apply the creative punching angles that paced him to so many brilliant victories over the years.

Asked by PPV.COM if Inoue reminds Pacquiao of himself, the Filipino said, “Yes, when I was young, in my 20s. Always moving. Never staying in one place.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.