Naoya “The Monster” Inoue retained his super bantamweight title on September 3 against TJ Doheny at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. The Japanese four-division world champion defeated the former champion via TKO.
The scheduled for 12 rounds bout ended 16 seconds into the seventh round. After Inoue delivered a body punch combination Doheny appeared to have suffered a back injury. After taking a knee he walked back to his corner and the fight was called off.
At the time of the stoppage, Inoue was leading on the judges’ scorecards reading 58-56 and 59-55 x2. Doheny had success in the third and fourth rounds.
With the victory, Inoue improved his unbeaten record to 28-0, 25 KOs and made the second successful defense of his 122 lbs title. Irish-born Australia-based Doheny dropped to 26-5, 20 KOs, which snapped his three-fight winning streak.
Post-fight promoter Bob Arum said that Naoya Inoue would soon make his appearance in the U.S.
“I told him it was another great performance,” Arum said. “I understand he’ll be coming back here to Tokyo to defend his title again at the end of the year. And then we’re taking him to the United States for a big celebration in Las Vegas.”
In the co-main event, Japan’s WBO bantamweight champion Yoshiki Takei (10-0, 8 KOs) defeated compatriot and former world champion Daigo Higa (21-3-1, 19 KOs) by unanimous decision to make the first successful defense of his belt. In the 11th round Takei went down from a left hand, but dominated the final round to take the victory with the scores 115-112, 114-113 and 114-113.
Among other Inoue vs Doheny results, unbeaten representative of the country-host Andy Hiraoka (24-0, 19 KOs) upset Venezuelan-born Miami-based Ismael Barroso (25-5-2, 23 KOs) via TKO to claim his interim WBA super lightweight strap. The time was 2:58 into the ninth round.
As well, Jin Sasaki (18-1-1, 17 KOs) of Japan stopped Australia’s Qamil Balla (15-2-1, 8 KOs) at 52 seconds into the seventh round at welterweight. In the event opener, Toshiki Shimomachi (19-1-3, 12 KOs) retained his Japanese super bantamweight title by unanimous decision against Ryuya Tsugawa (13-2, 9 KOs) with the scores 96-93, 96-93 and 97-92.