Japanese boxer Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue defeated TJ Doheny inside the Ariake Arena in Tokyo on Tuesday to hold on to his undisputed super-bantamweight title.
Inoue, the overwhelming favourite heading into the fight, recorded a technical knockout to stop Doheny in the seventh round after the Irish fighter looked to have injured his back or leg.
Naoya Inoue STOPS TJ Doheny in Round 7 after TJ seems to have injured his leg or back. The commentators laughed at him 💀#InoueDoheny pic.twitter.com/NGEE6eNhBn
— Dante 🦈 (@ohdante_) September 3, 2024
Two-weight undisputed king Inoue, who recorded the 25th knockout in his 28-win career, also recorded his ninth consecutive knockout against top-level opponents, earmarking the Japanese’s dominance in the ring.
The 31-year-old, who has now won all 23 of his world championship bouts, became just the second fighter to capture all four world championship belts in two different weight classes when he unified the super bantamweight division by beating Filipino Marlon Tapales in December 2023.
He most recently defended his titles in May, after dropping Mexican Luis Nery in the sixth round inside the 43,000-capacity Tokyo Dome.
Meanwhile, Doheny, a former world champion who held the IBF super-bantamweight title from 2018 to 2019, fell to a Japanese opponent for the first time, having won his last three fights against a Japanese native and his previous four bouts on Japanese soil.
