TJ Doheny will not be overawed when he challenges the brilliant Naoya Inoue for the undisputed super-bantamweight world championship at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
It will be the fifth time the Australia-based Irishman has fought in Japan and he has never lost there before.
Doheny is a highly experienced former world champion with a healthy 77% knockout ratio.
“I think Doheny’s got a good punch, he’s strong. He’s a tough, tough guy and he’s been reeling off some great wins in Japan as it is so I don’t think he’s going to be a stranger to the moment,” Todd DuBoef, president of promoters Top Rank, told Sky Sports.
“I think he gives everybody problems, because he’s a tough out,” DuBoef added. “He’s seasoned. I’d call him a veteran of the game. He’s seen it all. With that comes the knowledge of how to pick your shots and to figure out the times when you’re going to land them.
“They’ve seen all different types come at them and they’re not going to jump in and make stupid mistakes. So you may see him be a little conservative early on to see what he has, with the speed and power of Inoue.”
But DuBoef thinks that would be a mistake. He believes that Doheny should try to force an early error from the great Japanese champion, just like Luis Nery did when he shocked the watching public with a stunning knockdown of Inoue in the first round of his last fight.
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“I think he should try to jump on him and let Inoue know, like Nery did, you’re not just pitching one way. I’m going to come back at you,” DuBoef said.
However Inoue has warned that he still improving as a fighter and experiencing a knockdown could now make him more dangerous.
“We were all there ringside and gasped for air when we saw him going down,” DuBoef said.
“I was taught early on that a lot of times first round knockdowns are guys being cold, a little tight, the environment getting to them, them not being focused. But I think he did exactly what great, great fighters do, he just came out the next round and he just dropped Nery. Just answered very quickly.
“I think he’ll become a better fighter as a result of it,” he concluded. “The greatest fighters in the history of the sport have all been down, if it was Ali, if it was Leonard, everybody has been down. For him, he has freakish, freakish, freakish ability to have speed and power, offence, defence and IQ.
“That’s what makes him so exciting to watch and make people rave about watching him no matter who he fights.”
An all-Japan super-fight?
Lead by Inoue, the sport at the top-level is thriving in Japan. On October 13 Takuma Inoue, Naoya’s brother, will defend his WBA bantamweight title against Seiya Tsutsumi and on October 14 Junto Nakatani, the WBC bantamweight champion and another thrilling stylist, fights 77-bout veteran Tasana Salapat, all live on Sky Sports.
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“They have this rockstar type of personalities. They’re entertainers not only boxers,” DuBoef said of this new wave of Japanese fights.
“[Inoue] puts it all together,” he added. “People were there four hours before [his last fight] just glued to that big stadium.
“It’s refreshing to see. It’s great to see him have such relevance and move that country and have such a big fan base. If you ever have a chance to see Inoue, regardless if it’s Japan or anywhere else, he’s still something special to watch.”
An all-Japanese super-fight with Nakatani could be on the horizon for Inoue.
“I think it’s going to be interesting to see both how Inoue does this fight and it’s going to be interesting to see how Nakatani does in October,” DuBoef said.
