World Boxing News provides live results from Ariake Arena in Japan as Naoya Inoue defends his undisputed title against TJ Doheny.
Inoue vs Doheny Live Results
In the headliner, Naoya Inoue earned a TKO over TJ Doheny after the challenger suffered an injury and could not continue.
Doheny was already outclassed and on his way to defeat when the Irishman bowed out 16 seconds into the seventh round. Inoue moves to 28-0 with a 25th stoppage as Doheny seemed to have a back injury coupled with certain pain from sickening body shots.
Inoue cements his place as the pound-for-pound number three fighter on the planet behind Terence Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk.
Yoshiki Takei successfully defended his WBO bantamweight title against former world titleholder Daigo Higa. The pair engaged in a war for the duration of the content, not wanting to take a backward step for the full twelve rounds. After a phonebox encounter, Takei took the decision following a strong final round after being dropped in the previous seIn
At the conclusion, judge Edward Ligas carded 115-112 for the champion. Additionally, Masakazu Murase and Danrex Tapdasan both saw it 114-113 for Takei.
CompuBox said, “Higa gave the champion all he could handle in his first title defense. Though Takei landed 40 more power punches, Higa connected on 47% of his power punches, slowly grinding Takei down as the fight wore on.
“Higa scored the fight’s lone knockdown in the 11th round, though replays indicate that a punch might have landed while Takei slipped on the ring logo. Takei got up and tried to win the rest of the round.
“That carried over into the 12th round, where Takei threw 75 punches and landed 26 power punches- both fight highs. Reduced to attempting to survive Takei’s onslaught, Higa only threw 13 punches and landed 5 in the final round.”
Ismael Barroso suffered the fifth defeat of his career with a ninth-round stoppage against the unbeaten Andy Hiraoka. Barroso hit the canvas after a barrage with only seconds remaining in the round. After the Venezuelan was too slow getting to his feet, referee Chris Young called a halt at 2:58 of the ninth.
Hiraoka is now 24-0 following a nineteenth stoppage as Barroso falls to 25-5-2.
As welterweight Jin Sasaki recorded his seventeenth knockout from 18 wins by ending his clash with Qamil Balla within a minute of the seventh round. The 23-year-old is now on a six-fight KO streak after suffering a first loss and drawing a six-rounder either side of yet another stoppage.
A world title shot isn’t far away for the hard-hitting 147-pounder.
Toshiki Shimomachi won a unanimous ten-round decision over Ryuya Tsugawa as the southpaw retained the Japanese bantamweight title. Scores read 97-92 and 96-93 twice as the 27-year-old moved to 19-1-3. Tsugawa drops to 13-2 after his second professional loss.
Read all articles and exclusive interviews by Phil Jay. Learn more about the author, experienced boxing writer, and World Boxing News Editor since 2010. Follow on Twitter @PhilJWBN.
