Road warrior TJ Doheny primed to join Irish greats on Friday night

Portlaoise’s ‘Power’ faces fellow world champion Danny Roman in a world-title unification clash on Friday night.

TJ DOHENY IS primed for the what is the biggest fight not only of his career, but his opponent’s, in California in the wee hours of Saturday morning Irish time (Sky Sports, coverage begins 2:30am).

Portlaoise’s IBF World super-bantamweight champion will become only the fourth Irish boxer ever to unify world titles if he can beat his WBA equivalent Danny Roman in the latter’s hometown of Inglewood, joining Carl Frampton, Ryan Burnett and Katie Taylor.

Doheny lives with his family in Bondi Junction in New South Wales, Australia and is no stranger to stunning road victories: he took world honours from Japan’s Ryosuke Iwasa in Tokyo last summer in one of the finest Irish sporting achievements of 2018 or indeed any year.

And the unassuming ‘Power’, 32, is confident he can relieve Roman of his strap in the American’s backyard, too — although he stopped shy of wildly claiming as such.

“My prediction? Fireworks!” said Doheny. “It’s not my style to predict too much, but the fans can expect a great fight. I know Danny is going to bring it and you better believe that I am more than ready for anything he brings.

“We’re the top two guys in the division. He wants to unify, I want to unify, it’s what all the top champions should want to do. I keep saying you win the world title and it’s a dream come true, but then you have got to raise the bar. Fair play to Danny for taking the unification on, it’s what the fans want, it’s what we both want, and it’s great for boxing. You want to unify the division and cement your name at the top.

"Let's Fight!" 🤝@TjDoheny and Daniel Roman are READY to unify their Super Bantamweight World Titles. 🌎🏆 pic.twitter.com/U3HlUZNu7u
— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) January 19, 2019

“When Danny challenged me in the ring in New York”, Doheny continued, “he said he had a lot of respect for me as I won the world title in Japan like he did.

We have a similar story, he’s a respectful guy, he’s a great fighter, he’s got a great punch selection and he’s in his hometown so he’s going to bring it – but he has to bring his best.

“I’ve been getting a lot more exposure now — I expected some negative feedback maybe but it’s all been positive. The support back in Ireland has been massive, too, through Sky Sports.

People that know me will tell you that I don’t crave the attention, but I think it’s something I deserve having achieved what I achieved and in the fashion I did it in. I’m a bit of a road warrior. It’s exciting for me to be able to box in all these places like Tokyo, New York, Sydney, and now LA – I thrive on it. It’s the stuff of dreams and I’m here living it.

Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella are joined by Andy Dunne to get stuck into last weekend’s Champions Cup semi-finals.: