Naoya Inoue returns today to defend his undisputed super bantamweight championship, taking on TJ Doheny in the main event from Tokyo.
ESPN+ will stream the show live in the United States, with a two-fight broadcast starting at 5:45 am ET. Up first on the card will be Yoshiki Takei defending the WBO bantamweight title against Daigo Higa, which is also a very good matchup.
Inoue (27-0, 24 KO) last fought on May 6, overcoming an early knockdown to thrash Luis Nery en route to a sixth round stoppage. He was expected to face mandatory challenger Sam Goodman next, but the deal didn’t come together, so we get Doheny (26-4, 20 KO) instead.
Born in Ireland and living in Australia, the 37-year-old Doheny is a former IBF titleholder at 122 lbs, and he has some history in Japan, beating Ryosuke Iwasa for that title in 2018. His most recent three bouts have also been in Japan, so he’s 4-0 there in his career, which sets up a little story for this fight at least.
Live updates will come in the stream below: