Roman, Doheny primed for unification showdown

The April 26 DAZN card from the Forum in Inglewood, California, is headlined by a highly-anticipated super flyweight title rematch between WBC titleholder Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Juan Francisco Estrada, but there are two super bantamweight titleholders looking to unify on the card, too, and Daniel Roman and TJ Doheny sound ready for action.

Roman (26-2-1, 10 KO) holds the WBA title, while Doheny (21-0, 15 KO) has the IBF strap. Los Angeles native Roman will have home field advantage against the Ireland-born, Australia-based Doheny.

“I’m excited to be back home and excited that TJ’s here,” Roman said.

“This is a fight you want to see. The best against the best, champion against champion. I’ve been asking for this fight since I won the world title, and finally it’s here. It’s going to be a great card, but I feel we’re going to steal the show that night.”

“This is the kind of fight I want to be involved in. It’s a dream of mine — as soon as I got my world title that’s all I’ve been pushing for is a unification,” Doheny added.

“I want to thank Daniel Roman for taking the fight and wanting to unify the division. In my opinion this is probably the best two 122-pound fighters in the world going off right now. There’s a lot of respect between myself and Danny. A fight of this magnitude does not need that [antagonistic] kind of stuff. Come April 26 when that first bell goes, the respect will be gone out the window, and the fans can expect fireworks.”

Roman, 28, went to Japan in Sept. 2017 and beat Shun Kubo to win his belt. He followed that up with a return trip to Japan in Feb. 2018, beating Ryo Matsumoto, and has defended successfully against Moises Flores and Gavin McDonnell in his last two fights.

Doheny, 32, also took his title as a foreign challenger in Japan, knocking off Ryosuke Iwasa last August at Korakuen Hall. He made his first defense on Jan. 18 in New York, beating Ryohei Takahashi via 11th round TKO.