TJ Doheny stops Ryohei Takahashi in 11th round of first world title defence

TJ Doheny showed his class to stop Ryohei Takahashi in the 11th round the first defence of his IBF super-bantamweight title, at Madison Square Garden.

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The Irishman had his brave challenger down in the third and dominated the rest of the bout before Mike Ortega stepped in to wave it off.

Doheny, who is based in Australia, won the belt in August when he went to Japan to out-point Ryosuke Iwasa and the neutral territory of New York, saw him cement his place at the top level.

The pair clashed heads in the second with both suffering cuts but there was worse to come for Takahashi in the third, as a left hook to the body, followed with a straight right and a couple more hooks, saw Doheny put him down.

It looked like it was the beginning of the end for the challenger, but although the Irishman landed plenty of body shots and caused Takahashi all sorts of problems for the next few rounds, the pattern changed in the second half.

Doheny was still on top but the dogged challenger's rugged style not only made it difficult for him to land clean shots, but looked to take it's toll.

The eighth was Takahashi's best round of the night but it was never going to change the outcome, as Doheny was closing in on a points decision, only for the referee to step in and call it to a halt in the 11th.

Doheny now looks likely to meet WBA counterpart Daniel Roman in a super-flyweight showdown.

On the undercard former world champion Chris Algieri continued to move towards another world title shot with a cracking 10-round success over Daniel Gonzalez,

Algieri, the former title holder who has been in with the likes of Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan, gave as good as he got in a non-stop affair and although he couldn't finish it inside the distance, got the unanimous decision.