Goodman suffers a cut in sparring, fight with Inoue may be postponed to January 24

NAOYA INOUE may not fight on Christmas Eve after all.

Sam Goodman, the Australian contender who was due to challenge Inoue for the Japanese superstar’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 122-pound titles on Dec. 24 in Tokyo, suffered a cut during a sparring session on Friday that forced him to withdraw from the 12 rounds. fight for the title that night. Goodman was cut just above his left eyelid during what was supposed to be his last sparring session before flying from Australia to Japan on Sunday.

Australian broadcaster Ben Damon first reported the news of Goodman’s cut on social media Friday night.

Boxing News confirmed that Goodman’s hosts pushed for the entire event to be postponed until January 24 to accommodate the No. 1 contender in both the IBF and WBO’s junior featherweight rankings.

Inoue’s representatives have considered replacing Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs) with Japan’s Toshiki Shimomachi (19-1-3, 12 KOs), who is expected to face another Japanese boxer, Misaki Hirano (11 -1, 4 KOs). , in a 10-game undercard on December 24.

Simomachi is ranked no. 5 by the IBF, n. 8 by the WBC and no. 11 by the WBA in the 122 lb. division. The WBO lists Simomachi as its No. 7 contender in the featherweight (126 lb.) division.

Ariake Arena is sold out for the card that was supposed to feature Inoue-Goodman, which was a significant factor in Inoue’s hosts not wanting to postpone the event.

Perhaps more problematic, however, is that Shimomachi is a 5-foot-10½ southpaw, while Goodman is 5-foot-6½ and fights from a right-handed stance. Changing strategy to a southpaw, without the benefit of much, if any, fighting against left-handed boxers, this late in training camp apparently encouraged Inoue’s trainers to simply have him fight Goodman a month later.

However, a one-month delay could disrupt Inoue’s plans for 2025.

Inoue intended to return to the ring on April 12 in Las Vegas if he overcame Goodman on December 24. His likely opponent for that bout would be Mexican contender Alan Picasso (30-0-1, 16 KOs), who must first defeat Colombia. Yehison Cuello (13-2-1, 11 KOs) will remain the WBC’s No. 1 challenger for one of Inoue’s four championships on Saturday night in Tijuana. If Inoue succeeds in back-to-back mandatory defenses against Goodman and Picasso, he would like to fight WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani (29-0, 22 KOs) at the Tokyo Dome in what would be the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history. late next summer or early next fall. Nakatani would need to win one more bout, perhaps in his debut at 122 pounds, to secure a spot in the clash with Inoue as well.