TJ Doheny joins Matchroom, defends title January 18th

Australia-based Irish super bantamweight TJ Doheny has signed on with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and will make the first defense of his IBF title on January 18th as part of the Demetrius Andrade-Artur Akavov card at Madison Square Garden.

As someone smarter than me noted, this means DAZN has three of the four super bantamweight champions under their banner, missing only Emmanuel Navarrete. Eddie Hearn has stated his intention to pit Doheny (20-0, 14 KO) against WBA kingpin Daniel Roman after Doheny deals with TBA next week.

Doheny edged out Ryosuke Iwasa to win the title in hostile territory last August. His previous best victories came over Thai veterans Sutep Wangmuk and Pipat Chaiporn. His top two contender slots are currently empty, so there isn’t much standing in the way of a unifier with Roman, save perhaps WBA #1 Murodjon Akhmadaliev.

Besides this, the main event, and a third title fight between Amanda Serrano and Eva Voraberger, the DAZN card will also feature Jorge Linares against Pablo Cesar Cano, the return of Chris Algieri, and Jarrell Miller against TBA.