By Anthony Cocks
IBF super bantamweight champion TJ ‘The Power’ Doheny 21-0 (15) and his WBA counterpart Daniel ‘The Baby-Faced Assassin’ Roman 26-2-1 (10) addressed the media at Beauty and Essex in Hollywood, California on Monday afternoon to discuss their upcoming unification bout at The Forum in Los Angeles on April 26.
Both boxers have actively sought out unification fights since winning their respective world titles on the road in Japan – Roman in September 2017 and Doheny last August.
“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,” said Doheny.
“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 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 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, will have the home ground advantage against the hard-charging southpaw.
“I’m excited to be back home and excited that TJ’s here. This is a fight you want to see. The best against the best, champion against champion,” said Roman.
“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.”
The 32-year-old Australian-based Irishman won the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame Fighter of the Year award for 2018 after his 12-round world title winning effort against Ryosuke Iwassa at Tokyo’s famed Korakuen Hall six months ago.
“The ANBHOF committee awarded TJ Doheny the Fighter of the Year for 2018 in recognition of his achievement in obtaining the IBF world super bantamweight title against a very strong list of finalists including Andrew Moloney, Jai Opetaia, Liam Paro, Tim Tszyu and Reagan Dessaix,” said ANBHOF secretary Damian Membrey.
The Doheny versus Roman fight will be part of a world title doubleheader also featuring the rematch between WBC super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai 47-4-1 (41) and Juan Francisco Estrada 38-3 (26).
Originally Published: https://www.ringnews24.com/2019/03/05/tj-doheny-and-daniel-roman-size-each-other-up-in-los-angeles-ahead-of-world-title-unification/