Hit in one eye, Sam Goodman, the Japanese’s future opponent, requested the postponement of their fight until January.
The fight between the Japanese Naoya Inoue, unified champion (WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO) of the super bantamweights, and Sam Goodman, scheduled for Tokyo on December 24, was postponed due to an eye injury of his challenger Australian, his team announced on Saturday. “We were informed today by Goodman that he was injured. We have decided to postpone the fight after discussing with Goodman’s team the status of his recovery,” Inoue’s team said in a statement, specifying that the fight would take place on January 24.
Goodman injured his left eye during his final training session before traveling to Japan to face the undisputed super bantamweight champion, the Australian’s promoter and manager told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. Inoue, aged 31 and undefeated in 28 fights (including 25 before the limit), will put all of his titles on the line for the third time since he unified the category in December 2023. In September, he defended successfully won his titles by stopping the Irishman TJ Doheny in the seventh round.
He is only the second man, after American Terence Crawford, to become undisputed world champion in two different weight categories since the start in 2004 of the era of the four main federations. Inoue previously unified the bantamweight category at the end of 2022. The fight against Goodman (19 victories including eight by knockout) must be his last in his home country before a fight scheduled in Las Vegas next year.
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