Japan’s undisputed and unbeaten world super-bantamweight champion Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue has defended his belts after an unfortunate early ending to his fight against Ireland’s TJ Doheny at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena on Tuesday.
Inoue, who now has a 28-0 win-loss record (25 KOs), was stepping into the ring for the first time since stopping Mexico’s Luis Nery in May and looked to be building towards another highlight reel finish.
But Doheny (26-5, 20 KOs), who previously held the IBF super-bantamweight world title from 2018 to 2019, pulled up injured in the seventh round and appeared to be pointing at his back before the fight was called off.
Doheny was visibly frustrated as he went to his corner holding at his back, yelling “f***”.
“He seems to be in a tremendous amount of pain right now,” Crystina Poncher said in commentary.
“What an unfortunate way for this fight to end.”
It was a measured start to the fight from Inoue, who landed a few hard shots to the body in the second round as he increased his workrate and finished with a three-punch flurry to put his stamp on the early stages of the bout.
Inoue was the busier of the two at that stage, although Doheny stepped up his activity in the third round, landing a few nice shots to bring it to the champion.
The Japanese superstar didn’t look bothered though, continuing to fire away at the body of Doheny, clearly trusting his ability to wear the Irishman down before landing the hammer blow later in the fight.
Meanwhile, even as the fight moved on to a sixth round, Inoue was not showing any signs of slowing down as he bounced in and out of range, making it Doheny work to connect with his shots.
Violent Tszyu flurry ENDS Mazoudier | 02:33
Inoue, on the other hand, was walking Doheny down and firing away combinations as he worked downstairs before this time mixing in strong shots up the top too.
Doheny was able to make it to the bell without any drama but sustained a lot of damage before later pulling up with the injury at the start of the seventh round.
Inoue joins American Terence Crawford as the only other male fighter to become undisputed world champion at two different weights since the four-belt era began in 2004.
He was the overwhelming favourite against the 37-year-old Doheny, who beat Bryl Bayagos of the Philippines on the Inoue undercard at the Tokyo Dome in his last fight.
Inoue was set to face Australian Sam Goodman, who is the IBF mandatory challenger, but is currently unable to fight due to injury.
Goodman, who defeated Doheny in March last year, is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Chainoi Worawut.
Goodman injured his right hand in the fourth round of that fight, which he didn’t even have to take given he was already mandatory for division king Inoue.
But Goodman said at the time that he wanted one more fight to prepare himself for the challenge of coming up against the undefeated Japanese star in a blockbuster bout that is slated for December.
— with AFP
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