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Naoya Inoue, arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing, returns to action on Tuesday when he defends his undisputed junior featherweight title against TJ Doheny. The fight will take place from the Ariake Arena in Tokyo. The fight will be Inoue’s second defense as undisputed 122-pound champion, as well as his first fight since stopping Luis Nery in May.
Junior featherweight is the fourth division in which Inoue has won world championship gold, it is also the second division in which Inoue has simultaneously held all four recognized world championship titles to go undisputed. Inoue’s first undisputed run came at bantamweight, where he last defeated Paul Butler to add the WBO title to the WBC, WBA and IBF titles he already owned.
Any questions about how Inoue would handle the move to junior featherweight were immediately answered in his first fight at the weight, with Inoue tearing through Stephen Fulton to capture the WBC and WBO championships in July 2023. Fulton was seen as a fringe contender for the top spot. 10 pound-for-pound lists, but he was overwhelmed by Inoue’s relentless attack.
Inoue then defeated Marlon Tapales to add the IBF and WBA titles and become the undisputed champion. He would defend his undisputed status for the first time against Luis Nery in May. Nery became the first man to knock down Inoue, but Inoue continued to dominate the fight en route to a sixth-round knockout.
Doheny is a former IBF 122-pound champion and is a household name among Japanese boxing fans. The Irish fighter won his only world championship from Ryosuke Iwasa in Tokyo in 2018 and retained it from Ryohei Takahashi before dropping the title to Daniel Roman in 2019.
The loss to Roman marked the start of a 2-4 run for Doheny after winning the first 21 fights of his professional career. Since that difficult period, Doheny has recorded three consecutive victories. All three of these wins have come in Tokyo, making him an attractive choice for Inoue.
The frequent fights in Tokyo also explain why Inoue and his team took a lower-risk fight with Doheny instead of facing Murodjon Akhmadaliev, who the WBA has already ordered Inoue to fight. Despite not following the WBA order, Inoue has not faced any disciplinary action and will defend the WBA title along with the three others on Tuesday.
The undercard features a number of attractive fights, with WBO bantamweight champion Yoshiki Takei defending his title against former flyweight champion Daigo Higa and interim WBA super lightweight champion Ismael Barroso facing Andy Hiraoka.
Inoue vs. Doheny fight card, odds
- Naoya Inoue (c) -5000 vs. TJ Doheny +1700, undisputed junior featherweight title
- Yoshiki Takei (c) -400 vs. Daigo Higa +295, WBO bantamweight title
- Ismael Barroso (ic) vs. Andy Hiraoka, WBA interim junior welterweight title
- Jin Sasaki vs. Qamil Balla, welterweights
- Toshiki Shimomachi vs. Ryuya Tsugawa, junior featherweights
View information
Date: September 3 | Start time: 5:45 AM ET (main card)
Location: Ariake Arena-Tokyo
TV channel: ESPN+
Prediction
Boxing can be an unpredictable game, but it doesn’t get much more predictable than Inoue versus Doheny. That’s why Inoue is a favorite of the -5000 entering the battle. Doheny has lost to far worse fighters than Inoue and not only has Inoue never been defeated, but he has scored a stoppage in 24 of his 27 professional fights, many of them against better fighters than Doheny.
This fight was fought because Doheny had done just enough to be a credible opponent while being a household name in Japan. It’ll be a nice payday for him, but Inoue can probably end the fight as soon as he feels the desire to put his foot on the accelerator. Choice: Naoya Inoue via KO3