By Ryan Burton
Newly crowned IBF super bantamweight champion TJ Doheny (20-0) pulled off a big upset when he traveled to Japan and ripped away the title against Ryosuke Iwasa (25-3) via unanimous decision.
Dohney's road victory came by the scores of 116-112, 117-112 and 115-113.
The win was hardly easy for the Irishman. He had cuts under both of his eyes and also hurt his left hand in the fight that was streamed in the United States early Thursday morning on the ESPN+ app.
BoxingScene.com/NoSparring.com and the local Japanese press caught up with Doheny after the fight to get an update on his hand injury and his thoughts on the fight in general.
"I am good. I asked the doctor and he said it is not broken. It is swollen. I threw it and caught him on the back of the head right on the knuckle," Doheny explained.
The 31-year-old was very respectful of his adversary after the fight and said that he expected a tough fight.
He said that sticking to his game plan was very important in this fight and gave a lot of credit to his team. He is confident that he would be victorious against any 122 pound fighter in the world which includes WBO champion Isaac Dogboe, WBC titleholder Rey Vargas and WBA champ Danny Roman.
"(Iwasa) is really good with his lead hand. He likes to set traps and get you to fall in so we we were trying to outbox him early and not fall into his traps. He was a very worthy champion. We knew it was a fight but I was 100% confident in my preparation and my ability plus having Hector Bermudez and Tony Del Vecchio in my corner. That is a winning combination. With their boxing knowledge and my ability we can beat anyone in the world," said a confident Doheny.
Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter
