Naoya Inoue is heading for Las Vegas after retaining his status as the undisputed super-bantamweight champion of the world by comfortably defeating Irish challenger TJ Doheny in Tokyo.
Boxing’s hard-hitting pound-for-pound superstar delivered a dominant display in his 23rd world title fight at Ariake Arena on Tuesday to provide the second successful defence of his WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles at 122lbs.
An entertaining fight was eventually waved off 16 seconds into round seven, with Inoue crashing in a number of heavy punches to the body and a battling Doheny unable to continue due to an apparent back injury.
Such a victory was the undefeated ‘Monster’s’ 28th in a row as a professional, with 25 knockouts. The 31-year-old is already a four-weight world champion and twice undisputed at both bantamweight and super-bantamweight.
He achieved the latter feat by beating Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales in Japan last year, before bouncing back from the shock first knockdown of his career in May to stop Luis Nery and retain his super-bantamweight belts.
Inoue’s last seven fights have all come on home soil in Japan, with his last bout overseas coming with a bantamweight title clash against Michael Dasmarinas in the summer of 2021.
He had also stopped Jason Moloney in Vegas in his previous fight, having also fought in California and Glasgow as a professional.
Inoue is now set to headline in Vegas early next year, according to promoter Bob Arum. But first up is another title defence in Japan later in 2024.
“It was another great performance,” the Top Rank chief said in the ring after Inoue’s latest victory. “I understand he will be coming back here to Tokyo to defend his title at the end of the year.
“And then we’re taking him to the United States for a big celebration in Las Vegas.”
After Doheny’s retirement, Inoue said: “Tonight, I really wanted to go through the fight one round at a time. I wanted to slow down, hand my opponent damage.
“This fight didn’t end in the way we expected, but if you’re going to have a career like this, [maybe this can be useful].
“I am still improving. I want to acknowledge how TJ Doheny brought the fight tonight, and I want to celebrate his career.”
