Naoya Inoue weighed in at 122 lbs, while his opponent, TJ Doheny, came in at 121.5 pounds during Monday’s weigh-in for their clash on Tuesday night, September 3rd, at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs) has made a mistake by choosing to stay at 122 and defend his undisputed super bantamweight title against the soon-to-be 38-year-old Doheny (26-4, 20 KOs) because there’s very little interest in this mismatch.
Fans Tired of Inoue’s “Safe” Matchups
There’s not much interest from fans in the United States for the Inoue vs. Doheny fight for obvious reasons, given that it’s viewed as yet another example of Naoya’s unwillingness to step it up against talented opposition.
Fans in the U.S. have grown tired of watching Inoue take lesser opposition. They view Naoya as a fighter who is being carefully matched and kept away from the killers at 126, who would end his reign.
In other words, Inoue is being propped up with matchmaking, keeping him in a dead division that is safe from the teaming sharks in the 126-lb division that would see the Japanese star as food.
The old grizzled veteran TJ Doheny has done nothing to rate a world title shot, apart from being three tomato cans to resurrect his career.
Doheny is viewed as a washed-up fighter who has been on a steep decline for four years since 2020. Fans don’t understand why Inoue is fighting the 37-year-old Doheny rather than moving up to featherweight [126] to test himself against the killers in that weight class.
Some fans believe that Naoya Inoue is afraid to move up to 126 to fight these talented fighters:
- Bruce Carrington
- Rafael Espinoza
- Angelo Leo
- Rey Vargas
- Nick Ball
- Robeisy Ramirez
- Brandon Figueroa
Things will be very different for the 31-year-old ‘Monster’ Inoue at featherweight if he moves up from the safety of the super bantamweight division, which is well-stocked with limited, easy-mark fighters who aren’t a threat to the Japanese star.
A Fight with No Meaning
The Irish native TJ Doheny lost three out of four fights from 2020 to 2023, and the only way he’s pulled out of this downward spin is due to the weak match-making his management has done for him, feeding him these three fighters:
– Bryl Bayogos
– Japhethlee Llamido
– Kazuki Nakajima
If the idea is for Inoue to avenge the losses of his fellow countrymen by beating Doheny for revenge, it’s a waste of his career. Those guys that Doheny beat would lose to anyone in the top 50, and, sadly, his management has resorted to matching him against those types of fighters to keep his sinking career above the waterline.
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