Naoya Inoue Gets a Gimme, Will Face TJ Doheny September 3 in Tokyo

Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs) is getting a softball lobbed his way in his next fight, September 3, at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

Inoue will be defending his unified super bantamweight champ status against Ireland’s TJ Doheny (26-4, 20 KOs) in a bout that will be equal parts anticlimactic and meaningless.

The 37-year-old Doheny has become a Japan fight scene regular recently, with his last three bouts taking place in the country. Ultimately, it could be seen that he was being fattened up to be fed to Inoue for a showcase squash like the one confirmed for September 3.

The Irishman notched an upset win over Ryosuke Iwasa to take the IBF super bantamweight title in 2018 and made one defense of that belt before losing to Daniel Roman in a title unification bout. Losses to Ionut Baluta and Michael Conlan followed soon after and the southpaw former titlist was written off as someone who’s time had passed and, also, as someone whose punch resistance was diminishing with age and wear.

Doheny’s last meaningful bout came in March of 2023, when he lost a unanimous decision to Sam Goodman in Australia. Goodman was named mandatory challenger for Inoue, but was forced to push his title shot down the line due to a hand injury suffered in a July 10 tuneup fight.

A good case could be made that the 31-year-old Inoue deserves a relative soft touch after a career run that has seen him unify all four belts in the bantamweight and super bantamweight divisions, as well as win world titles at junior flyweight and super flyweight.

Another good case could be made, though, that there’s a legitimately deserving and possibly challenging foe waiting in the wings, needlessly, while Inoue takes this semi-break. Murodjon Akhmadaliev, a former two-belt super bantamweight champ, is the WBA’s mandatory for Inoue and is regarded as a more competitive foe than anyone on Inoue’s short list of preferred future opposition.

Promoter Eddie Hearn, who represents Akhmadaliev, has been flustered by the unified champ’s decision to bypass his fighter for a bout he classifies as a “horrific mismatch.”

“Gutted, devastated, disappointing for boxing. Disappointing for Japan,” Hearn said, regarding the announcement of Inoue-Doheny. “If I hadn’t worked with TJ Doheny five or six years ago I would really go in on this fight. But I don’t want to disrespect TJ because he’s a nice guy. It’s a horrific mismatch. I don’t understand why, for some reason, Team Inoue and Mr. Honda and everyone, I know for a fact they don’t like the Akhmadaliev fight. I don’t understand that you’ve got a pound-for-pound arguably number one, who has the opportunity to fight his mandatory. I wouldn’t expect him to pick Akhmadaliev in a voluntary…it’s hard to say Inoue is ducking Akhmadaliev, but he actually is.”

Like it or not, though, the unified champ calls the shots. And Team Inoue is clearly calling for a low-risk breather until future plans can be hashed out.