The undisputed king of the super-bantamweight division Naoya Inoue has been successful in his second title defense at the Ariaka Arena in Tokyo. He has been able to add yet another KO win to his repertoire, sprucing up his boxing record to 28-0, with twenty-four knockouts. Inoue clearly emerged as the dominant fighter in the bout as TJ Doheny didn’t seem to have any answers to his pressure fighting and relentless shots to the body. Ultimately, in the seventh round, the Irish fighter dropped to his knee and quit due to an unfortunate injury.

The turning point in the match was the sixth round. The Japanese boxer landed an overhead right on Doheny which caused him to wince in pain. He was seen holding the bottom of his back in the final seconds of the round. Coming into the seventh, Inoue hit Doheny with a barrage of body shots, and that was enough for the Irishman to call it quits. The 37-year-old Southpaw was seen holding his back and staggering back to his corner. Thereafter, Doheny left the ring in considerable pain and did not even do the in-ring interview.

While there seem to be some unanswered questions about what exactly went wrong for Doheny in the fight, boxing reporter Dan Rafael caught up with Doheny in his dressing room after it to seek answers about his injury. Elaborating on what caused him to quit, Doheny stated, “It is the muscle right above my hip. I just can’t use my leg.” He further stated that he went limp on one of his legs which caused him to rethink about continuing in the bout, “No power, on my right leg. When I come back up, I tried to push off, then I went nah.”

With the loss against Inoue, Doheny has suffered five defeats in 31 fights. This was also the first time that he didn’t go the distance in a fight, and it was also his first defeat in Japan. On the other hand, what are Naoya Inoue’s upcoming plans? Will he return to the United States to fight again?

Top Rank charts out Inoue’s future

Naoya Inoue has fought his last six fights in Japan. Therefore, a lot of fans are clamoring to watch the ‘Monster’ on foreign soil again. The Japanese boxer has fought thrice in the United States, and his promoter Bob Arum might be preparing him for his fourth visit quite soon. “We’re taking him to the United States for a big celebration in Las Vegas,” Arum said. However, Inoue won’t fight in the US this year as he will be defending his titles again in Tokyo, possibly against Australia’s Sam Goodman who is a mandatory challenger for Inoue’s IBF super-bantamweight title, possibly at the end of 2024.

Meanwhile, in his in-ring interview, Inoue thanked Doheny for bringing the “fight into this ring.” even though he expected a different outcome from the matchup instead of his opponent quitting due to an injury. “This fight didn’t end how we expected, but fighting a long career like this, this is a night we might have,” Inoue said. The 31-year-old boxer now has won twenty-three world title fights since his first in 2014 and won seven fights in a row in Japan. Safe to say, the fans will be eagerly waiting for him to have an undisputed title defense fight in the United States. He last fought in the US against Michael Dasmarinas, successfully defending his IBF world bantamweight title.

Who do you want Inoue to fight in the United States? Let us know in the comment section below.