Inoue continuing his knockout streak against TJ Doheny

Naoya 'The Monster' Inoue (28-0 25 KOs) retained his undisputed super-bantamweight on Tuesday in Ariake Arena, Japan. Inoue continuing his knockout streak against TJ Doheny (27-5 20 KOs) but not in the fashion everyone was expecting as Doheny, 37, succumbed to an injury early in the seventh round. Inoue was not at his best performance due to his recent inability to gain any rhythm throughout the fight. 

While fighting in his fourth world title, Doheny was competitive in the first couple of rounds, boxing well from the outside in his southpaw stance. Slowing down the pace and trying to control the centre of the ring it proved difficult for Inoue to land anything of significance but worked well to the body remaining patient during the third round.

Round four saw Doheny frustrate Inoue but during the second part of the round Inoue was backing Doheny to the ropes, the older fighter feeling psychologically drained with Inoue's front foot's constant pressure throughout the end of the fourth. The fifth round Inoue’s body work paid dividends, backing Doheny to the ropes with hooks and uppercuts to the body. At the end of the sixth round, Doheny looked like the body shots, particularly to the liver, were taking a toil as Doheny looked in discomfort, walking to the corner, holding his back. Inoue landed a straight right early in the seventh, then unloaded a combination of punches. In pain, Doheny could not continue, and the fight waved of clutching his hip or lower back Doheny yelled in pain. Doheny revealed in the changing room that he received a sciatica injury.

Inoue made the adjustments needed to pick up the win but fought with more caution than usual. Inoue in the right, after the fight suggested the damage came due to “an accumulation of damage that I did to him. Tonight, I wanted to go through the fight one round at a time.”

Both men came inside the super bantamweight limit. Inoue at 122 TJ Doheny weighed 121.5 pounds comfortably under the super bantamweight limit. 

Inoue is a four-weight world champion in everyone's top three P4P list; he won his first world title in 2014, over ten years ago. Since then, he has captured world titles at three different weight classes, stopping 25 out of his 28 opponents. 21 out of the 23 men he has met in world title fights. His career began at 108lbs, and he is now campaigning a stone heavier at 122lbs. 

He has held belts at light-fly to super bantamweight. He faced Irish TJ Doheny, former IBF super-bantamweight champion in 2019, before losing in unification against Daniel Roman for the undisputed super-bantamweight titles. Inoue, 31 has beaten everybody of note in the weight divisions he has faced, has taken care of previously avoided fighters, and has done it in incredible fashion. 

Inoue's last contest in May proved to be his toughest test, but he stopped Luis Nery in the sixth. He came off the floor for the first time in his career to retain his undisputed titles. In front of 50,000 at the Tokyo Dome. Despite what boxing experts and ex-fighters have said, Inoue showed that he is an absolute star in his home country of Japan. 

Bob Arum, 92, promoter of Top Rank, has never been short of praise for Inoue. One of his customary lines is, "He's the best I've ever seen." Arum is not kidding when he emphasises this statement. Arum has said she would like to see Inoue remain active in fighting again in Japan before the end of 2024 in December. Then, come to the United States of America in 2025. 

Arum has looked to grow his Inoue to the USA audience. Inoue will likely move up to featherweight 126lbs to capture world titles at a fifth weight class.