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That’s been enough in the assessment of many to make Inoue the world’s No 1 pound-for-pound fighter. Standing in his way is the Irish southpaw Doheny, who five years ago held the IBF strap that Inoue holds today. But the 37-year-old challenger, a familiar face in Japan, is a massive underdog despite coming off three straight TKO victories in Japan entering today’s main event.
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The final preliminary bout, a scheduled 12-round fight between Yoshiki Takei and Daigo Higa for Takei’s WBO bantamweight title, is about to start. Then Inoue and Doheny will make their ringwalks.
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Naoya Inoue (right) poses for a selfie during a press conference before Saturday's super bantamweight title fight against Ireland's TJ Doheny.”,”caption”:”Japan's Naoya Inoue (right) poses for a selfie during a press conference before Saturday's super bantamweight title fight against Ireland's TJ Doheny.”,”credit”:”Photo by Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1725356897000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”05.48 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1725358359000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”06.12 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1725358115000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”06.08 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”06.08″,”title”:”Preface”,”Contributor”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Tuesday, September 3, 2024 06:12 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First Published Tuesday, September 3, 2024 05:45 EDT”}],”filterKeyEvents”:false,”id”:”key-events-carousel-mobile”,”absoluteServerTimes”:false}”>
Main Events
preamble
Hello and welcome to the absolute fight for the super bantamweight championship between Naoya Inoue and TJ Doheny. The unbeaten Japanese four-division world champion known as “The Monster” returns to the ring today at the Rinkai Ariake Arena on the outskirts of Tokyo to defend his WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO 122-pound title belts, where he successfully unified the four major title belts in just two bouts after accomplishing the same feat at 118 pounds.
In many people's estimation, Inoue has enough to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Standing in his way is Doheny, the Irish southpaw who held Inoue's IBF belt five years ago. But the 37-year-old challenger, a familiar face in Japan, is a huge underdog despite having won three straight TKOs in Japan before today's main event.
The final qualifying bout will begin shortly with a 12-round bout between Yoshiki Takei and Daigo Higa for Takei's WBO bantamweight title, followed by Inoue and Doheny walking the ring.
Brian will be here soon.
