Naoya Inoue vs TJ Doheny official for September 3rd in Tokyo
Yoshiki Takei vs Daigo Higa and Ismael Barroso vs Andy Hiraoka are also on tap
Undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue is officially set to meet TJ Doheny atop a September 3rd title tripleheader at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena.
It’s worth noting that the announcement claims Inoue (27-0, 24 KO) will defend all four of his titles, meaning the WBA has not acted on its outstanding order that Inoue face Murodjon Akhmadaliev.
As mentioned before, Doheny (26-4, 20 KO) is a familiar face to the Japanese audience, having fought his last three in the Land of the Rising Sun. He’s also 37 years old and entered that three-fight run on a 2-4 skid, making him far more financially appealing than competitively appealing for “The Monster.”
In other championship action, WBO bantamweight champion Yoshiki Takei (9-0, 8 KO) will make his inaugural defense against former flyweight titlist Daigo Higa (21-2-1, 19 KO). Takei is coming off an entertaining decision win over Jason Moloney that saw him survive near-disaster in the final round, while Higa is 6-1-1 since the JBC forced him up to 118 following his weight miss against Cristofer Rosales, including a well-aged loss to future champ Ryosuke Nishida and a draw with current contender and potential title challenger Seiya Tsutsumi.
With Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz due to fight Jose Valenzuela on August 3rd, interim WBA super lightweight champion Ismael Barroso (25-4-2, 23 KO) will make his first appearance since January opposite Andy Hiraoka (23-0, 18 KO). This is an incredibly overdue step up for Hiraoka after his 2021 knockout of Jin Sasaki (17-1-1, 16 KO), who also sees action against Qamil Balla (15-1-1, 8 KO)
