By Tom Donelson (BWAA) Member Boxing Writers Association of America – and – respected contributor to www.dmboxing.com since 2008

Naoya Inoue defended his title against TJ Doheny for Inoue unified super bantamweight title and Inoue dominated his opponent with multiple of attacks including a blistering body shot.

The first round saw Inoue stalking his opponent as Dohney, landed a couple of body shots against the southpaw Dohney.  Inoue continued his stalking into the second round but in the third round Doheny may have won the third round as he landed 13 punches to Inoue 8 punches. He managed to move around and land his jab but at the end of the fourth round, Inoue forced Doheny to the rope and landing solid body shots.

At the start of the fifth round Doheny showed aggressive as he moved forward but this last about one  minute before Inoue reversed Doheny movement and forced the Irish fighter to retreat. Doheny showed the ability to defend against Inoue as he avoided two big shots.  Inoue did manage to land solid body shots.

The sixth round, Inoue finally figured out his opponent as he landed at will, and Doheny had no answer.  Body shots led to headshots and back to the body.  Inoue moved at will and did what he wanted.  Doheny became a punching bag as Inoue landed 32 punches and as the seventh round began, Inoue just developed vicious body shots before Dohney went down.  Dohney came up limping and appeared to have hip injuries.  He could not continue.

Inoue did what he always does, he simply dominated the fight at every aspect of the fight game.  He connected on 93 punches, landed twice as many jabs and 64 power shots to Dohney 41.  He landed 46 percent of his overall punches and 52 percent of his power shots.   If there is a weakness, ESPN Tim Bradley observed that Inoue often backs away in a straight line, making he vulnerable. That is only if you can take advantage and take a chance on not getting knocked out first.

Inoue is a complete fighter as he has a good jab, and he landed nearly 40 percent of his jab against the southpaw Doheny, and he is good at avoiding getting nailed with big shot plus he has good mobility, and he is the best pound for pound fighter at the moment in my estimation. For what is worth, I had the fight 5 to 1 in rounds going into the seventh.