Naoya Inoue continues to find new ways to win.
It was an injury layoff this time as he forced TJ Doheny to concede early in the seventh round. A combination forced Doheny’s leg to give out as he limped away in pain. Referee Bence Kovacs waved off the bout at 0:28 of the seventh round on Tuesday at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs) retained his RING and undisputed 122-pound championship with the win in their ESPN+ main event.
There was significantly less drama than in Inoue’s previous defense on May 6 at the Tokyo Dome. He was forced to survive the first takedown of his career when he was covered by Luis Nery in the opening round. Inoue was able to get it back in blood as he knocked Nery down three times en route to a knockout in the sixth round.
Nothing close to the threat of a replay has surfaced in this fight. Action was slow out of the gate. Both fighters traded punches in the first round. Inoue continually tapped the right glove of Doheny (26-5, 20 KOs) with his left. Neither fighter landed anything of significance in the feel-’em-out round.
Inoue started to pick up the pace in the second. Doheny was on the defensive, but it was effective as Inoue was not free flowing with his combinations. The defending champion used constant movement to never allow his southpaw challenger to set up his offense.
Doheny found success with his straight left hand in the third, his best of the fight up to that point. Inoue continued to move slowly, relative to the string of explosive performances he put on through four weight divisions. Doheny looked for opportunities while they were still there during those moments.
Whatever momentum was enjoyed by Doheny quickly shifted back to Inoue in a strong fourth round. Doheny refused to play the role of a +2000 underdog (Inoue was a -6500 favorite entering the fight). The former IBF 122-pound titlist fended off Inoue’s surges and found a home for his left hand, up top and to the body. Inoue’s straight to the body pushed Doheny to the ropes.
A competitive fifth round prompted Inoue to turn up the pressure in the sixth. The swing was the beginning of the end. Doheny’s scarred face continued to redden, though he never got close to the canvas. Inoue went on the offensive and hurt Doheny on a number of occasions.
The seventh round opened with Inoue picking up where he left off in the previous frame. A right hand was followed by a combination, including a left hook to the body that spun Doheny’s right leg. He immediately turned away and signaled to the ref his unexpected injury before taking a knee. The fight was called off immediately at that point.
However anticlimactic, it still goes down as a win for Inoue, who is now 21-0 in true title fights spanning four weight divisions. He also claimed two first-round knockouts in his brief stay as a secondary WBA bantamweight titleholder.
The shutout was his ninth in a row, including a perfect 4-0 (4 KOs) at 122.
Perhaps more intriguing are his future plans.
Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum confirmed the already speculated news of a third fight of the year for Inoue. Should the date hold, it would be Inoue’s most active campaign since 2017.
An opponent has not been confirmed, although Sam Goodman of Australia has suggested he will be given the assignment as the mandatory IBF challenger. Inoue was previously ordered to honor his WBA mandatory title defense against Murodjon Akhmadaliev. However, that didn’t stop his team from choosing Doheny as an opponent.
With a win in December, the plan is to then bring Inoue back to the US – although he didn’t specify in what capacity.
“I understand he will come back here at the end of the year,” Arum said. “And then we’ll take him to the United States for a big celebration in Las Vegas.”
Inoue has fought seven times in a row in Japan after a two-fight stint in Vegas during the pandemic.
The win on Tuesday saw Inoue become just the third male boxer to make at least two successful defenses of the undisputed championship in the four-ring era. Inoue joined Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Devin Haney on that list. He previously held the Ring and Undisputed Bantamweight Championship. Inoue became the first fully unified 118-pound champion in more than 50 years following his December 2022 knockout victory over Paul Butler.
From there came his title blitz in 2023. He knocked out unified titlists Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales to win all four belts in a two-fight sweep. The feat saw him join Claressa Shields, Terence Crawford and Katie Taylor as the only undisputed two-division, four-belt champions. Inoue was also honored by The Ring and almost every other publication as the 2023 Fighter of the Year.
