TJ Doheny prepares strategy to slay ‘The Monster’ for undisputed championship

It wasn’t that long ago that TJ Doheny’s career appeared to be on the skids.

Rising star Sam Goodman had beaten him on points, adding his name to Michael Conlan, Ionut Baluta and Daniel Roman as boxers who had defeated Doheny during a span of four years. The way back to the top looked like a long and windy road.

That was in March of last year. Fast-forward to today and Doheny is less than a month out from challenging Ring Magazine and undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs), who he will face at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan, on September 3.

So how did Doheny manage to turn his career around?

“I put it down to activity,” the 37-year-old Irish southpaw, who lives in Sydney, Australia, said to The Ring. “I’m in my mid-thirties and I needed some motivation to keep in the gym. It’s hard when you’re sitting out on a hiatus with nothing to motivate you to train. I’m also a dad of four kids, so I’m a busy man. I’ve got other priorities and life commitments, so I’m not really focused if I  don’t have a fight date. So I think the resurgence has come just from fight after fight on the bounce over the last 12 to 18 months.”

Longtime manager Mike Altamura masterminded the recent activity that has seen Doheny’s return to form. Since June of last year, he has been sent to box in Japan three times, scoring three early knockouts against solid opposition. Kazuki Nakajima was considered a top prospect in his homeland. He lasted four rounds. Fellow southpaw Japhethlee Llamido was undefeated. He didn’t hear the bell to end the first round. On the undercard of the Inoue versus Luis Nery fight in May, Filipino Bryl Bayogos only made it into the fourth round against Doheny before being stopped.

“I underperformed against Goodman and I think they might’ve been overlooking me in Japan, thinking I was going to be an easy scalp,” said Doheny (26-4, 20 KOs), who won the IBF 122-pound belt against Ryosuke Iwasa at Japan’s famed Korakuen Hall six years ago. “Then I go over to Japan and bang-bang-bang, I flatten three guys in 12 months. And now I’m back and in the running [for a] world title.”

The continuity of fights has helped keep Doheny fit and focused, improving every day in the gym.

“Once we got that fight with Nakajima and I bowled him over, we already knew then that we had a fight contract to go back over to Japan,” said Doheny, who is ranked No. 7 at 122 pounds by The Ring. “So that’s what kept me motivated in the gym; we knew we were going to get the call any day. Then they put me in against Llamido, a kid they had held very highly on a pedestal over in Japan because he had given Inoue really tough work in sparring and stuff. I flattened him in a round. And then we were hoping we would get an opportunity on an Inoue undercard or some other opportunity would arise in Japan. That’s what kept me motivated. You can see what I am capable of when I’m active and in the gym.”

In a twist of fate, Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs) was expected to face Inoue in September, but the undefeated 25-year-old decided to face Thailand’s Chainoi Worawut in July instead. The Ring’s No. 4-ranked junior featherweight contender will likely get first crack at the winner of Inoue-Doheny. Altamura lobbied hard to get Doheny the assignment in Japan.

“This is an opportunity that dreams are made of,” said Altamura. “The grandest stage in the sport, for all the belts — it’s what any fighter aspires to. For this opportunity to come for TJ, at 37 years of age and 13 years into his professional journey, it’s just incredible. 

“He has already been at the top of the mountain before, held the IBF world title and had a unification bout [against Daniel Roman] in the past, but this is undoubtedly the biggest stage of his career, for all the belts, against one of the pound-for-pound kings. 

“When you look at the opportunity presented, it’s a huge motivation, against all odds, to really write yourself into the history books. And TJ has always been one of those fighters I work with who thrives on challenges.” 

And what a challenge it is. Little can be said about Inoue that hasn’t been said before. He is the dominant force in the lighter weight classes after winning sanctioning body belts in four separate weight classes, including undisputed status and Ring Magazine championships at bantamweight and junior featherweight, while cutting a swathe through his opposition.

But not every performance has been flawless. In his last fight against Nery, Inoue had to climb off the canvas in the opening round after being floored by a left-hand bomb from the Mexican southpaw. Although Inoue was ultimately dominant, dropping Nery three times before stopping him in the sixth, it did show some rare vulnerability in The Ring’s No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer.

Doheny watched on with interest from ringside.

“What I took out of that is that he’s only human after all,” said Doheny. “It just goes to show that nobody is perfect; anybody can be put down. Obviously, we’re going to go in there looking for a knockout, just like he’s going to be looking for one. But it will be done intelligently. I won’t just be coming out swinging and hoping for the best; that’s not the way it’s going to work.

“I think I bring a different type of challenge than Inoue’s previous opponents. The last two were both southpaws, but if you go back through their records, they were career bantamweights. I’m a career super bantamweight and it’s no secret I’m big for the weight, so I have that strength and everybody knows about my punch power. I bring those attributes to the ring.

“In terms of preparation and stuff, I just need to get myself in the best physical shape and we’ll see how the fight plays out from there.” 

Altamura makes no bones about the magnitude of this fight and the challenge his boxer is facing. Victory for Doheny will be on the scale of Buster Douglas upsetting Mike Tyson at the Tokyo Dome 34 years ago. But Altamura is cautiously optimistic that Doheny and his coach, Hector Bermudez, have put together the right game plan to defeat the man known as “The Monster.”

“The areas we take confidence in this fight is that I know we have the better puncher between the two and I know that he is going to be stronger than Inoue when they are in the ring,” said Altamura.

“TJ is going to have to deactivate certain weapons of Inoue, who is very dynamic offensively and has a really nice kit of punches. He’s very fast with his feet, but he doesn’t move his head a lot, though. I think there are going to be opportunities there for TJ to counter him and to walk him into shots, but he’s got to be really switched on to the game plan. 

“I feel as though Hector Bermudez – who to me is one of the most outstanding trainers in world boxing – has the right formula and the right game plans to be effective against Inoue, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it is going to play out on September 3.”

Australian-based boxing journalist Anthony Cocks has been covering the sport for over 20 years for various print and online publications. Follow him on X.

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