Horse Power – TJ Doheny warns he’s not a lamb ready to be slaughtered
Anyone who labelled TJ Doheny’s recent Japanese wins as ‘shocks’ or ‘surprises’ meet the ire of the Laois man.
‘The Power’ was far from happy with those suggesting he defied the odds when stopping Kazuki Nakajima, Japhethlee Llamido and Bryl Bayogos to win fights that secured him a return to the top table – and he let them know!
Similarly, the 37-year-old is more than happy to take offense with the many writing him heading into his fight with a certain Naoya Inoue on Tuesday.
Not many are giving the Australian-based puncher a chance, even a puncher’s one, against the undisputed super bantamweight champion and pound-for-pound contender.
The bookies have the veteran a 12/1 outsider, while some experts have suggested the best Doheny can hope for is a moral victory.
Dohney, on the other hand, believes, and enters what he isn’t afraid to admit is a tough fight confident he has the tools to join Katie Taylor in the undisputed world champion ranks.
“Everybody in the world has him there, so I’d be a fool to sit here and think any different,” the former IBF world champion says of’The Monster’s’ standing when speaking to Boxingscene.
“But also, I’m not going in there with a mindset that I’m a lamb to the slaughter, either. I bring a lot to the table – a lot of different attributes – and even towards his last couple of opponents, I’m a lot bigger, a lot stronger, I’m a lot more athletic, and I’ve got a punch that can knock out a horse, so we’ve always got that in the back pocket. I’m confident in my own abilities and anything can happen on the night because this is boxing.”
The Portlaoise BC graduate’s confidence must have been boosted from four-weight world champion Inoue’s last fight. Doheny was ringside as the Japanese superstar was dropped in the first round of his bad-blood fight with Luis Nery.
He admits his heart was in his mouth when Inoue consulted the canvas but he now looks back it with a fonder view.
“We were ringside,” recalls Doheny. “We were right on top of the ring so we had a bird’s eye view.
“I was half praying he was going to get out of the first round. I wanted my shot, too. But there’s a few things you can take from it. Number one is, yeah he got dropped and it helps you realize that he’s only human and nobody’s flawless at the end of the day. All it takes is that one shot to turn things around. And number two is, he did really well to recover and come out and get his knockdowns back and he closed the show well, too. So you can take some confidence from it but you can also see when he is hurt, he can recover and comeback.”
