On Tuesday morning in the United States, one of the best boxers in the world, Naoya Inoue (27-0) returns home to Japan to defend his Undisputed Junior Featherweight Championship against TJ Doheny (26-4). Inoue has knocked out each of his previous eight opponents. The last time a fight Inoue was in went to the judges’ scorecards was in 2019.
Inoue is currently a huge favorite in this matchup at -5000 while Doheny is +1700 to pull off the enormous upset on DraftKings Sportsbook. Inoue is an insane -1600 to win this fight by knockout as the over/under is 4.5 rounds on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Box Rec, the premiere website for rankings within the boxing world has Inoue as their No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world. ESPN has Inoue No. 3 on their P4P list behind Undisputed Heavyweight Champion Oleksandr Usyk (22-0) and Undisputed Welterweight Champion Terrence Crawford (40-0). The Ring Magazine and the BWAA (Boxers Writing Association of America) have Inoue No. 2 on their list right now.
Doheny, 37, is ranked as the No. 13 best super bantamweight according to Box Rec’s rankings. Since Doheny lost to Sam Goodman in March 2023, he has won three fights in a row by way of knockout. This will also be Doheny’s fourth straight fight in Japan. Although Inoue is one of the most dominant champions in boxing today, he did get knocked down by Luis Nery in his previous fight. That was the first time in Inoue’s career that he hit the canvas.
There are two fights on the televised main card on Tuesday, starting on ESPN+ at 5:45 A.M. ET. The first fight on the broadcast features the WBO World Bantamweight Champion, Yoshiki Takei (9-0) who is fighting Daigo Huga (21-2-1). Takei, 28, beat Jason Moloney by decision in May of 2024 to win the WBO title. That decision victory was the first time that Takei had not finished his opponent as he had eight knockouts in the first eight fights of his career. Huga is riding a four-fight win streak where he most recently finished his last two opponents in the fourth round.
Takei is the favorite at -500 and Higa is the +250 underdog on DraftKings Sportsbook. Takei is also +135 to win by KO/TKO/DQ on DraftKings Sportsbook.
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