As cunning as former titleholder TJ Doheny was to stay in the fight Tuesday morning, undisputed junior featherweight champion Nawa Inoue’s power finally caught up with him.
Luis Neri, one fight back from suffering the first knockdown of his career in his opener against Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs), showed Tokyo’s Arias high level of endurance and defensive responsibility in the arena as the Japanese star dismantled Doheny. (26-5, 20 KOs) down.
Inoue, 31, finally caught up with the veteran southpaw in Round 7 when a hard floor to the body stopped the blow as Doheny, 37, clutched his lower back in pain before dropping to his knees. Referee Bens Kovacs stopped the fight 16 seconds into the round and Doheny needed assistance to get out of the ring and back to the locker room to help his right leg.
“I think it was the submission (punch) that got him,” Eno said, through an interpreter.
Doheny, a native of Ireland who fought out of Australia, developed a reputation as a menace to Japanese fighters. He won the IBF title at 122 pounds on Japanese soil in 2018 and Inoue enters the fight fresh off a resurgent stretch of three knockouts last year against fighters with a combined record of 32-1-2.
Inoue had trouble breaking through Doheny’s defense early on despite constantly pinning him in the corner of the ring. Some of that was due to Inoue’s caution as the pound-for-pound ranked star who holds titles in four divisions opted to pick his shots and draw Doheny.
It wasn’t until Inoue moved into a counterpunching role in round 4 that Doheny began to get more aggressive as he mixed in looping right hooks with a strong commitment to the body. But it appeared as if Inoue was finally relaxing Doheny’s guard, prompting him to do so, and the change of strategy worked when Inoue took the offensive again in round 6 and began to hit his opponent with hard right hands and body hooks. .
“Tonight, I really wanted to take my fight (round) one at a time,” Eno said. “I know boxing is not easy, so I really wanted to slow it down, take it one by one to hurt my opponent.
“This fight didn’t end the way I hoped but I’m still moving forward. In this match, in particular, I want to celebrate how TJ Doheny brought this fight to the ring and in his career. And you can expect more. I’m in the future.”
According to CompuBox, Inoue outscored Doheny by a margin of 93 to 52. But the percentage at which “The Monster” connected was the most absurd as Inoue landed 46% of his total punches and 52% of his power shots.
Despite not debuting in the division until July 2023, it was Inoue’s ninth straight victory by knockout at 122 pounds and the second defense of his undisputed title.
Bob Aram, Inoue’s co-promoter, entered the ring after the fight and announced that after Inoue returns to the ring one more time in Japan to close out the year, the Top Chairman plans to bring him to Las Vegas in 2025. Referred to as “a major celebration”.
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