Don’t tell TJ Doheny he’s the underdog against Naoya Inoue. He’s not interested. Don’t tell the Australia-based Irishman he doesn’t deserve the shot. He doesn’t care. Don’t tell him he won’t win against the Japanese star. He doesn’t believe it.
The often media-shy southpaw is 37 and, entering the fight of his life, has a record of 26 victories against four defeats. He has also taken the nickname of the “Japanese Assassin”, following a string of impressive performances on away soil – including capturing a world crown on his first visit to the Far East back in 2018, when he stunned Ryosuke Iwasa over 12 rounds.
Japan might be pulling for another Inoue victory when the fighters meet on Tuesday, but throughout the build-up Doheny has been treated with reverence and respect – not just because of the culture but because of his heart, spirit and back catalogue there.
The Japanese Assassin moniker is a term of endearment, not an unwelcome label.
“My first fight out here was when I captured the world title, so it’s become a place close to my heart and I always get received very well by the Japanese fans,” says Doheny as the clock ticks down to fight night at the Ariake Arena in Kotu-Ku. “I actually really enjoy fighting here and I seem to perform out of my skin here as well.
“Japan will always have a close place of my heart because I achieved my career dream here, but I don’t think it’s just Japan [that will serve him well against Inoue]. I think it’s down to the experience through my career; the majority of my career I’ve travelled and fought on the road, so I think it’s down to that. I’ve never really been affected by being the away fighter or being on hostile environments, not that it’s like that in Japan. But I think that’s just what it comes down to – experience and being a road warrior, you know?”
It is that experience that he contends has him ready for Inoue, the undisputed junior featherweight champion, and it is a fight that has not come out of the blue for Doheny. He opened the show at the vast Tokyo Dome in May the night Inoue climbed off the deck to blitz the Mexican banger Luis Nery, stopping the outgunned Filipino Bryl Bayogos in four rounds.
That might have been a trial run to test the appetite for Doheny in Japan, and it was clearly there. Doheny and his team, including fight manager Mike Altamura, hoped the Inoue fight could be possible.
“We had our fingers crossed behind our backs, hoping,” Doheny continues, to BoxingScene. “We needed the stars to align. There were a lot of things that kind of fell into our laps and made the fight happen. We were hopeful it was going to happen. I think I’ve earned the opportunity. I’ve been out here pushing the stars into place as opposed to all the lads sitting on the sidelines hoping the stars are going to align. I think, in terms of that, I deserve it. But also there were other factors that didn’t happen, so it just fell into our lap.”
Those factors that didn’t happen were alternatives Doheny felt Inoue might have chosen before he got his chance. There is a lingering animosity between Doheny and his old foe Sam Goodman, the talented Australian who outscored him over 10 rounds in 2023.
Goodman is the mandatory challenger for Inoue with both the IBF and WBO. Goodman entered the ring and challenged Inoue after the Nery fight, and while Inoue-Goodman seems likely should Inoue come through Doheny, it is not one Goodman says he was ever offered. Goodman also said he did not feel Doheny deserved the Inoue fight.
“He had the opportunity and you see this is what I don’t get,” Doheny says of Goodman. “I don’t get where this disrespect is coming out and I think a lot of it stems from jealousy. But, at the end of the day, he was offered the fight, he got up in the ring and made a fool out of himself by calling him out when he knew he had a fight lined up in six weeks and Inoue put it to him, ‘Yeah, let’s go in September’, and he fucking shat it. The only reason I’m in this position is because he shat himself. Please put that down in black and white.”
After his own contest in May, Doheny made his way to ringside to watch Inoue get on top of Nery before taking him out in scintillating fashion. There were moments, after Inoue was shockingly dropped in the first round, when some wondered whether the end result would go to plan.
“We were ringside,” recalls Doheny. “We were right on top of the ring so we had a bird’s eye view.
“I was half praying he [Inoue] was going to get out of the first round myself. I wanted my shot, too. But there’s a few things you can take from it. Number one is, yeah he got dropped and it helps you realize that he’s only human and nobody’s flawless at the end of the day. All it takes is that one shot to turn things around. And number two is, he did really well to recover and come out and get his knockdowns back and he closed the show well, too. So you can take some confidence from it but you can also see when he is hurt, he can recover and comeback.”
While Doheny has self-confidence and self-respect as a fighter, he admires the multi-weight Japanese icon and understands exactly why he tops so many pound-for-pound lists.
“Everybody in the world has him there, so I’d be a fool to sit here and think any different,” Doheny says of his opponent’s ranking. “But also, I’m not going in there with a mindset that I’m a lamb to the slaughter, either. I bring a lot to the table – a lot of different attributes – and even towards his last couple of opponents, I’m a lot bigger, a lot stronger, I’m a lot more athletic, and I’ve got a punch that can knock out a horse, so we’ve always got that in the back pocket. I’m confident in my own abilities and anything can happen on the night because this is boxing.”
Asked what makes Inoue stand out as a generational talent, Doheny does little more than chuckle to himself.
“Jeez, there’s not much he does wrong,” he quips. “But that kind of stuff motivates you in camp, to train harder and you know you’ve got to cover all bases because he’s quick; he’s sharp; he’s snappy and I’ve just got to work on keeping my mentality right, being smart in there, fighting at the right times and not going in there trying to match his high-paced tempo and being wired up.
“I’ve just got to be smart in there and pick my moments and I think that’s what it’s going to come down to on the night. Who has the best moments.”
When Nery visited Tokyo earlier this year, he did so as the bad guy – someone who had committed the cardinal sin of missing weight in Japan, and then failed a test for PEDs. In the end, he won the crowd over with his excitement and courage, but Doheny has a different starting point. He will be applauded right the way through.
“Yeah, so Nery’s like the villain and I’m the one who receives the affection and I think they see me as this kind of family man, but I’ve always been received very well by the people over here and I think it’s because I’ve done everything right by the sport and they’re huge fight fans and they respect guys that do right by the sport and live the life of a professional athlete properly,” Doheny explains.
And while Doheny has earned his way via a different path, he always hoped for a blockbuster fight against a star. Even through the losses and setbacks he has endured, he felt that if he kept knocking long enough and loud enough, the door would open.
“This is why I’m still fighting at 37 years of age,” he says. “I know, and I need to prove this to myself and I know and I’ve said it to so many people that I should be in the mix [at the highest level] but you know with the politics of boxing you need things to go your way. You need to get a couple of wins on the bounce and luckily enough I’ve got those opportunities in Japan. I always knew I had the goods to get myself back into position and now it’s finally happening. And with the losses that I’ve had, there’s always been a few little factors or things here and there that I could have tweaked or adjusted or had better camps. I could have overturned those decisions. It wasn’t just I went in there and I just wasn’t good enough. There’s been other factors for those losses, too.”
Doheny says he is ready for the biggest test of his career. The biggest test anyone can face in the lower weight classes.
Don’t tell him he is in Japan to make up the numbers. He isn’t listening.
By Tris Dixon