Tale of the tape
Here’s a look at how Inoue and Doheny measure up ahead of tonight’s main event. The challenger has marginal half-inch advantages in height in reach. Both made the super bantamweight divisional limit of 122lbs at yesterday’s official weigh-in.
Key events
Inoue wins by seventh-round TKO!
Round 7
Inoue lands a straight right hand early in the seventh, then unloads a combination of punches. Doheny gives a face like he just tasted the most disgusting food ever. And he’s not going to be able to continue. He’s appeared to have tweaked something. His back maybe? Either way it’s over!
Round 6
Doheny is doing everything he can but Inoue is having his way with him. The dedicated body attack has paid dividends. Inoue closes the round with a dozen unanswered shots, slicing him up with crisp combinations.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Inoue 10-9 Doheny (Inoue 59-55 Doheny)
Round 5
Inoue lunges forward and throws a combination of punches but Doheny defends well. A nice combination from Doheny led by a left uppercut. Inoue is stepping up the work rate, using the body shots to lower his opponent’s guard. He’s also defending beautifully. Inoue has tasted Doheny’s power and knows he can take it and is taken a more aggressive tack. Doheny lands a strong straight left near the end of the round. The Irishman is giving a very good account of himself, using veteran wiles to give Inoue a ton of different looks, but it still might not be enough against this exceptional champion.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Inoue 10-9 Doheny (Inoue 49-46 Doheny)
Round 4
Inoue is respecting what he sees in front of him. He’s walking Doheny down, but hesitant to open up when he’s got him trapped against the ripes. Doheny briefly switches to orthodox, then back to southpaw. Inoue has opened a small cut on the bridge of the challenger’s nose. Inoue continues to hammer away to the body and those shots will surely take their toll over time. Not sure many people expected this kind of technical fight but here we are.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Inoue 10-9 Doheny (Inoue 39-37 Doheny)
Round 3
Doheny hasn’t let his hands go so far, but he’s opening up a bit in the third. He’s flicking the jab, throwing shots to the head and body behind it. Inoue reverted to caution in that round. The champion landed a few sharp blows but Doheny did enough to nick it on volume,
Guardian’s unofficial score: Inoue 9-10 Doheny (Inoue 29-28 Doheny)
Round 2
Doheny is attempting to use feints in order to coach Inoue into throwing shots, allowing him to counter, but hasn’t had much success. About a minute into another cautious round, Inoue lunges in and lands a couple of hard shots to the body. The champion has stepped up the workrate since the first round, but is still boxing with measure and a bit of hesitation. Inoue lands a three-punch flurry near the end of the round.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Inoue 10-9 Doheny (Inoue 20-18 Doheny)
Round 1
There’s the bell. The fighters meet in the center of the ring, orthodox and southpaw, touching gloves and front feet, judging range and distance. Inoue lands a counter left hook. Inoue lands a right hand to the body. Inoue continues pressing to the body. Doheny is sitting back, looking to time the champion. Not a whole lot of action in a feeling-out round but Inoue did enough to take it.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Inoue 10-9 Doheny (Inoue 10-9 Doheny)
The fighters have been announced by ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. The final instructions have been given by referee Bence Kovacs, the seconds are out and we’ll pick it up with round-by-round coverage from here!
It’s time for the fighter entrances at the Ariake Arena. First out of the tunnel is the challenger, TJ Doheny, making the long walk to the ring wearing a white robe with green sleeves to Warrior’s Dance by Filip Lackovic. And now here comes the Monster! But not before a montage plays featuring clips of from his childhood and early amateur days. Entirely wholesome! A curtain drops and there he is, the great man, smiling as he makes his way to the squared circle wearing a shimmering black robe. Finally after a pause he climbs the stairs and through the ropes and raises a single glove to the crowd.
Yoshiki Takei has narrowly defended his WBO bantamweight world title by a unanimous decision over Daigo Higa. The ringside judges handed down scores of 115-112 and 114-113 (twice). Takei, who survived a knockdown in the 11th round, improves to 10-0 with eight knockouts. A hell of a fight and we’d love to see a rematch. Don’t expect one!
Next up: Naoya Inoue v TJ Doheny.
Yoshiki Takei and Daigo Higa are into the championship rounds. Takei, making the first defense of his WBO bantamweight championship at 118lbs, appears to be trailing on the cards entering the 11th round of a crowd-pleasing scrap at the Ariake Arena.
Some more background on tonight main event fighters. Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs), who won his first world title more than a decade ago, is a remarkable 22-0 with 20 knockouts in world championship fights. He became the first undisputed bantamweight champion in 50 years when he knocked out Paul Butler to unify all four belts in 2022, then consolidated the super bantamweight division over the next year with victories over Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales. Most recently, he came off the canvas to knock out Luis Nery before a sold-out crowd of around 50,000 spectators at the Tokyo Dome. It’s a destructive upward surge through boxing’s weight divisions not seen since Manny Pacquiao’s prime.
Doheny (26-4, 20 KOs) is a familiar face in Japan, having amassed a 3-0 record against Japanese fighters and a 4-0 mark on Japanese soil. That included his August 2018 win over Ryosuke Iwasa to win the IBF junior featherweight world championship. The Irish southpaw defended the belt against Japanese challenger Ryohei Takahashi via 11th-round TKO the following January before losing the strap to Daniel Roman in a unification fight that April. He’s struggled to find consistency since then, with four defeats from his last nine outings, but they’ve built him up well for this promotion with three straight knockout wins in Japan.
Tale of the tape
Here’s a look at how Inoue and Doheny measure up ahead of tonight’s main event. The challenger has marginal half-inch advantages in height in reach. Both made the super bantamweight divisional limit of 122lbs at yesterday’s official weigh-in.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the undisputed super bantamweight championship fight between Naoya Inoue and TJ Doheny. The unbeaten four-weight Japanese champion known as the Monster is back in action today at the waterfront Ariake Arena today in the Tokyo suburbs in defense of his WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO title belts at 122lbs, the division where he’s managed to unify all four major belts in only two fights after doing the same at 118lbs.
That’s been enough in the assessment of many to make Inoue the world’s No 1 pound-for-pound fighter. Standing in his way is the Irish southpaw Doheny, who five years ago held the IBF strap that Inoue holds today. But the 37-year-old challenger, a familiar face in Japan, is a massive underdog despite coming off three straight TKO victories in Japan entering today’s main event.
The final preliminary bout, a scheduled 12-round fight between Yoshiki Takei and Daigo Higa for Takei’s WBO bantamweight title, is about to start. Then Inoue and Doheny will make their ringwalks.
Bryan will be here shortly.
