TJ Doheny may be one of the biggest knockout punchers in the lighter weight classes, but he’s facing the most formidable puncher in all of boxing at lunchtime on Tuesday.

The veteran Irishman is back on familiar stomping ground aiming to become a two-time super-bantamweight champion of the world.

But in order to realise his ambitions the 37-year-old faces a ‘Monster’ of truly epic proportions.

P4P KING

Naoya Inoue is widely proclaimed as the #1 pound-for-pound champion in the sport of boxing.

The 31-year-old is a four-weight world champion and, alongside Oleksandr Usyk and Terence Crawford, one of only three men to claim undisputed status in two weight classes in this four-belt era.

What sets Inoue apart from the rest is not only his power, 24 KOs in 27 wins, but also the fact 22 of those fights were championship fights; 81.5% of his career has been contesting world titles.

Those figures are unmatched in boxing and single Inoue out as one of the greatest of all time.

THE POWER

By comparison, challenger Doheny’s near 77% KO rate secured him the moniker of ‘The Power’, but are dwarfed by Inoue’s astounding 88.9% finish rate stats.

After an amateur career which saw him pick up wins over the likes of Carl Frampton, Doheny moved to Australia and turned pro in 2012.

In 2018, and undefeated, he travelled to Japan for the first time to relieve Ryosuke Iwasa of his 122lb world title, and went on to make a successful defence in New York at the start of 2019 too.

But he was dropped twice early by Danny Roman in LA a few months later and lost both a close decision and also his belt.

A switch up to featherweight followed with some cash-spinning fights in UAE and back in Ireland. But a 1-3 skid appeared to have closed the door on his title aspirations.

However, he found salvation in the land of the rising sun, scoring three consecutive knockouts in the last 15 months to legitimise his contender status.

Yet, whilst Japan has presented happy hunting for Doheny, as have indeed Japanese opponents, he’s facing a national hero and a sporting icon tomorrow.

DON’T BLINK

The 26-4 challenger is experienced enough not to make any silly mistakes early, but that may also work against Doheny. Stand-off Inoue and you’ll get picked off.

Luis Nery shocked the world – at least for a moment – when he dropped Inoue in the first-round last time out.

The champion picked himself up and dropped Nery in the next and ultimately stopped him in six, but fighting fire with fire, whilst perilous, appears a more viable gameplan than attempting to be punch perfect for 12 rounds.

Doheny is teak tough, throws punches in bunches and believes in his chin (he’s never been stopped). This allows him to burst forward and load up the southpaw overhand left.

Inoue may be orthodox, but he’s got conclusive power in either hand. His left hook detonates, his right hand obliterates and he fires to the body with soul-stealing accuracy.

Like the Nery fight, when two punchers collide, we often get thrills and spills, but when one man is a generational talent, it’s hard to look past another legacy-enhancing KO.

TIP: Inoue by Knockout, Rounds 7-9

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