Naoya Inoue to defend titles against Ireland’s TJ Doheny

FILE–Japan’s WBC and WBO super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue. He is set to fight TJ Doheny in September. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)

Naoya Inoue will defend his undisputed super-bantamweight world belts against Ireland’s TJ Doheny at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena in September, the Japanese boxer known as “Monster” announced Tuesday.

The undefeated Inoue stopped Mexico’s Luis Nery in front of 55,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome in his last fight in May.

It headlined the first boxing card to be held at the venue since 42-1 underdog James “Buster” Douglas knocked out unbeaten heavyweight champion Mike Tyson there in February 1990 in one of the sport’s biggest upsets.

READ: Naoya Inoue shakes off early scare, knocks out Luis Nery

“Being able to fight at the Tokyo Dome was a special match for me in my career as a boxer, and I feel that I have surpass that performance with this next fight,” Inoue told reporters.

THE YEAR OF THE MONSTER 🚨👑

P4P icon @NaoyaInoue_410 will defend his undisputed Super Bantamweight crown against former world champion @TJDoheny. #InoueDoheny | SEP 3 | @ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/jHwYxFzMQU

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) July 16, 2024

The 31-year-old Inoue, who has a 27-0 win-loss record (24 KOs), will be the overwhelming favourite against Doheny (26-4, 20 KOs), who held the IBF super-bantamweight world title from 2018 to 2019.

The 37-year-old Irishman beat Bryl Bayagos of the Philippines on the Inoue undercard at the Tokyo Dome in his last fight.

“Doheny has had some really good fights recently and I don’t want to take my eye off the ball,” Inoue said.

READ: Inoue hunger not yet sated even after unifying second weight division

“He has knocked out boxers who I have sparred with and he can produce the goods in his fights.”

Inoue gave another demonstration of his ferocious power against Nery in his first title defence since becoming the undisputed super-bantamweight world champion last December.

But he had to recover from being knocked down for the first time in career after the Mexican floored him in the opening round.

Inoue got up and knocked his opponent down in the following round, before sending him to the canvas again in the fifth and finishing him off with a right hook in the sixth.

Inoue is just the second man to become undisputed world champion at two different weights since the four-belt era began in 2004. American Terence Crawford was the first.

Yoshiki Takei will defend his bantamweight world title against fellow Japanese boxer Daigo Higa on the undercard.

Takei beat Australia’s Jason Moloney in May to win WBO belt.