It’s been a whirlwind start to 2019 for Portlaoise’s TJ Doheny.
12 days ago, Doheny signed an exclusive deal with Matchroom Boxing and had the first defence of his IBF super bantamweight scheduled for January 18 in New York City.
It wasn’t until last Sunday that an opponent was announced in the form of Japan’s Ryohei Takahashi but the Irishman has taken everything in his stride and closed out a hectic fortnight by extending his perfect professional record to 21-0 at the Hulu Theatre in Madison Square Garden.
It was all Doheny from start to finish and after what ended up little more than a showcase fight, the 32-year-old verbally agreed to a unification clash with WBA champ Daniel Roman next.
Daniel Roman Is In The Building 👀
WATCH as he chats with @SiChrisMannix about possible future opponent @TjDoheny 🗣 pic.twitter.com/Ef17Aqsc5F
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) January 19, 2019
Doheny started the more confident, causing confusion from the southpaw stance and mixing it up beautifully between the head and the body.
An unfortunate head clash caused identical cuts between the eyebrows of both fighters in the second round but it appeared to take less out of the defending champion than it did Takahashi.
Takahashi was down in the third round courtesy of a gorgeous combination which ended with three thudding left hooks to the Japanese fighter’s temple.
Takahashi dropped in the third! 💥#DohenyTakahashi #AndradeAkavov pic.twitter.com/hNmPaVtuaJ
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) January 19, 2019
The following few rounds saw Takahashi become increasingly ragged in his output, having his awkward attack to thank for the few successful punches he landed more than any true technique.
The challenger enjoyed his best round of the bout in the eighth, when he found a home for a couple of tasty shots to Doheny’s solar plexus but the well-travelled Irishman looked a class above throughout.
When the stoppage finally arrived, it came at a strange time as referee Mike Ortega dived in at a point when no crushing blow landed and Takahashi looked destined to valiantly see out the twelve rounds.
🍀 #AndStill 👑 @TJDoheny retains his IBF World Super-Bantamweight Title stopping Takahashi in round 11 💥 #DohenyTakahashi #AndradeAkavov pic.twitter.com/yzoYQCz7oT
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) January 19, 2019
But it was a one-sided encounter and it never looked likely for a comeback to culminate so the third man in the ring can probably be forgiven for expediting the inevitable in the penultimate round.
“Just shaking off a little bit of rust, coming back from a thumb injury,” Doheny said in his post-fight interview.
“I was a little bit slow, maybe half a second too slow with my counter-punching but the main thing is that I came here to defend my title for the first time and that’s exactly what I did.
“Every time I hit him, I felt like I was hurting him but he was getting himself into some really safe spots. A lot of people might not have picked up on that but he was getting into some really safe spots and I was finding it hard to catch him. But when I did catch him, I was hurting him and then he was tying me up, not allowing me to get the other shots off so that I couldn’t finish him but the main thing is that we got the stoppage in the end and we move on now.”
