Inoue to defend undisputed junior featherweight title vs. Doheny
Japanese superstar will face former titleholder in Tokyo
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“The Monster” will be on the loose again in September.
Naoya Inoue, the 2023 fighter of the year and viewed by many as the pound-for-pound king, will defend the undisputed junior featherweight title against former titleholder TJ Doheny on Sept. 3 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, co-promoter Top Rank announced, coinciding with the Tuesday afternoon announcement in Japan.
It will be the fourth time in his last five fights that Inoue will headline at Ariake Arena.
The card, which will feature two additional title bouts, will stream on ESPN+ in the United States in the early morning.
“Naoya Inoue is a generational talent, and every time he fights, the boxing world stops to watch the master at work,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said. “TJ Doheny is a veteran who can never be counted out, as he’s defied the odds many times when fighting in Japan.”
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Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs), 31, Japan’s biggest boxing star, has knocked out eight opponents in a row, including all three since he vacated the undisputed bantamweight title in early 2023 and moved up to junior featherweight.
At junior featherweight, Inoue stopped Stephen Fulton in the eighth round to take his WBC and WBO belts in a one-sided fight last July and then won the IBF and WBA titles from Marlon Tapes in their four-belt unification bout via dominating 10th-round knockout in December. By beating Tapales, Inoue became the first undisputed 122-pound champion of the three- or four-belt era.
He also became the second man to become an undisputed champion in two weight classes in the four-belt era, joining Terence Crawford (welterweight and junior welterweight). In May, Oleksandr Usyk became the third when the former undisputed cruiserweight champion unified the four heavyweight titles by outpointing Tyson Fury.
On May 6, Inoue made his second defense, and first of all four belts, at the Tokyo Dome, where he survived the first knockdown of his career in the first round but stormed back to otherwise dominate WBC mandatory challenger and former titlist Luis Nery in a sixth-round knockout. The win moved Inoue, a four-division champion, to 22-0 with 20 knockouts in world title fights.
On the undercard, Doheny knocked out Bryl Bayogos in the fourth round to keep him in position for the title shot.
Doheny (26-4, 20 KOs), 37, an Irish southpaw fighting out of Australia, won the IBF title in 2018 in Tokyo, made one defense and then lost it via majority decision to WBA titlist Daniel Roman in a unification bout. Doheny, who is 5-3 since the loss to Roman and 4-0 fighting in Japan, will be a massive underdog against Inoue.
The fight will take place for undisputed status despite the fact that the WBA in June ordered Inoue to next make his mandatory defense against former unified titlist Murodjon “MJ” Akhmadaliev (12-1, 9 KOs), 29, a southpaw from Uzbekistan, and gave them 30 days to make a deal with fight ordered to take place before Sept. 25.
However, the WBA appears to have acquiesced to Inoue despite Akhmadaliev attorney Pat English pushing back and seeking for the WBA to deny the optional request by Inoue to face Doheny rather than a due mandatory that was already ordered.
In the co-feature, Yoshiki Takei will make his first WBO bantamweight title defense against Japanese countryman former WBC flyweight titlist Daigo Higa (21-2-1, 19 KOs), 28, who has won four fights in a row.
Takei (9-0, 8 KOs), 28, a southpaw, outpointed Jason Moloney to win the title on May 6 on the Inoue-Nery undercard.
Also on the card, Ismael Barroso will defend the WBA interim junior welterweight title for the first time when he faces Andy Hiraoka.
Barroso (25-4-2, 23 KOs), 41, southpaw from Venezuela, shook off a controversial ninth-round knockout loss to Rolando Romero for the vacant WBA title in May 2023 by blitzing Ohara Davies in a first-round knockout to win the vacant interim title in January.
Hiraoka (23-0, 18 KOs), 27, a Japanese southpaw, is coming off a fifth-round knockout of Sebastian Diaz on the Inoue-Tapales undercard in December.
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Inoue photo: Naoki Fukuda
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*Barroso, 41 (allegedly)
can we assume that Inoue faces MK Ak after this fight, assuming he wins?