Boxing
TJ Doheny Prepares Strategy to Defeat “The Monster” and Win Undisputed Championship
TJ Doheny (left) crushes Kazuki Nakajima en route to a fourth-round knockout victory on June 29, 2023, at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall. (Photo: Naoki Fukuda)
Not long ago, it seemed as if TJ Doheny’s career was on the decline.
Rising star Sam Goodman defeated him on points, adding his name to Michael Conlan, Ionut Baluta and Daniel Roman as boxers who had defeated Doheny in a four-year span. The road back to the top looked like a long and winding one.
That was last March. Swift forward to today, and Doheny is less than a month away from challenging Ring Magazine and undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs), who he will face at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan on September 3.
So how did Doheny manage to turn his career around?
“I attribute it to being dynamic,” the 37-year-old Irish left-hander, who lives in Sydney, Australia, told The Ring. “I’m in my 30s and I needed the motivation to stay in the gym. It’s tough when you’re on break and there’s nothing to motivate you to train. I’m also a father of four, so I’m a busy man. I have other priorities and commitments in life, so I’m not focused unless I have a fight date. So I think the resurgence has just come from having fight after fight in a row over the last 12 to 18 months.”
Longtime manager Mike Altamura masterminded the recent move that has restored Doheny’s form. He has been sent to Japan three times since last June, scoring three early knockouts against solid opponents. Kazuki Nakajima was considered the top prospect in his home country. He lasted four rounds. Fellow left-hander Japhethlee Llamido was unbeaten. He didn’t hear the bell at the end of the first round. In Inoue’s May-Luis Nery prelim, Filipino Bryl Bayogos only made it to the fourth round with Doheny before being stopped.
Doheny after his victory over Nakajima. (Photo: Naoki Fukuda)
“I did poorly in the Goodman fight, and I think they might have ignored me in Japan, thinking I was an straightforward target,” said Doheny (26-4, 20 KOs), who won the IBF 122-pound belt six years ago against Ryosuke Iwasa at Japan’s famed Korakuen Hall. “Then I went to Japan and bang-bang-bang, I took down three guys in 12 months. And now I’m back and I’m in the game.” [for a] world champion title.”
The continuity of fighting helped Doheny stay fit and focused, improving his performance every day in the gym.
“When we got that Nakajima fight and I knocked him out, we knew right then that we had a deal to come back to Japan,” said Doheny, who is ranked No. 7 in the 122-pound weight class by The Ring. “So that motivated me in the gym; we knew we were going to get the call any day now. Then they put me in the fight with Llamido, a kid that they really put a lot of stock in in Japan because he really put Inoue through his paces in sparring and stuff. I took him down in the round. And then we were hoping we’d get a chance to get a play-in with Inoue or maybe some other opportunity would come up in Japan. That motivated me. You can see what I’m capable of when I’m dynamic and in the gym.”
In a twist of fate, Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs) was scheduled to face Inoue in September, but the undefeated 25-year-old has opted to face Thailand’s Chainoi Worawut in July. The Ring’s No. 4-ranked junior featherweight contender is likely to be the first to take on the winner of the Inoue-Doheny fight, with Altamura lobbying difficult for Doheny to be given the assignment in Japan.
“It’s a dream come true,” Altamura said. “The biggest stage in the sport, for all belts, that’s what every fighter aspires to. The fact that TJ is 37 years elderly and 13 years into his career, he’s got an incredible opportunity.
“He’s been to the top of the mountain before, he had the IBF world title and he had a unification fight [against Daniel Roman] in the past, but this is undoubtedly the most crucial fight of his career, with all the belts, against one of the giants of the welterweight division.
“When you look at the opportunity that came your way, it’s a huge motivation, against all odds, to really make history. And TJ has always been one of those warriors that I work with who thrives on challenges.”
And what a challenge that is. There’s not much you can say about Inoue that hasn’t been said before. He’s a dominant force in the lighter weight classes after winning belts in four different weight classes, including undisputed status and the Ring Magazine bantamweight and junior featherweight championships, while tearing through his opponents.
But not every performance was flawless. In his last fight with Nery, Inoue was forced to leave the canvas in the first round after being floored with a left hand by the Mexican left-hander. Although Inoue was ultimately dominant, knocking Nery down three times before stopping him in the sixth round, he showed a occasional weakness in The Ring’s No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer.
Doheny watched with interest from the ring.
“I took away from that, he’s just human,” Doheny said. “It shows you that nobody’s perfect; anybody can get knocked down. Of course we’re going to go in there looking for a knockout, just like he’s going to go in there looking for a knockout. But we’re going to do it intelligently. I’m not just going to go out there and hope for the best; that’s not going to work.”
“I think I bring a different kind of challenge than Inoue’s previous opponents. The last two were left-handed, but if you look at their records, they were professional bantamweights. I’m a professional super bantamweight, and it’s no secret that I’m large for my weight, so I have that power and everyone knows about my punching power. I bring those attributes to the ring.
“In terms of preparation, I just need to get in the best physical shape possible and then we’ll see how the fight goes.”
Altamura makes no secret of the importance of the fight and the challenge his boxer faces. A victory for Doheny would be on par with Buster Douglas’ victory over Mike Tyson in the Tokyo Dome 34 years ago. But Altamura is cautiously bullish that Doheny and his trainer, Hector Bermudez, have come up with the right game plan to defeat the man known as “The Monster.”
“We are confident in this fight because I know we have the better puncher out of the two of them and I know he will be stronger than Inoue when they get in the ring,” Altamura said.
“TJ will have to deactivate some of Inoue’s weapons, he’s very vigorous on the offensive end and has a really good set of moves. He’s very quick on his feet, but he doesn’t move his head much. I think TJ will have opportunities to counter him and get him into shots, but he has to be really focused on the game plan.”
“I think Hector Bermudez – who to me is one of the greatest coaches in world boxing – has the right formula and the right game plans to be effective against Inoue, so I can’t wait to see how that plays out on September 3.”
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