NAOYA INOUE may not fight on Christmas Eve after all.
Sam Goodman, the Australian contender who was scheduled 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 training session Friday that left him forced to withdraw from their 12 rounds. title fight that night. Goodman was cut just above his left eyelid during what was to be his final training session before flying from Australia to Japan on Sunday.
Australian journalist Ben Damon first broke the news of Goodman's cutting on social media Friday evening.
Boxing News has confirmed that Goodman's handlers have been pushing for the entire event to be rescheduled for January 24 to accommodate the No. 1 contender in the IBF and WBO junior featherweight rankings.
Inoue's representatives 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 KO). , in a 10-rounder on the undercard on December 24.
Simomachi is ranked No. 5 by the IBF, No. 8 by the WBC and No. 11 by the WBA in the 122-pound division. The WBO ranks Simomachi as its No. 7 contender in the featherweight (126 pounds) division.
Ariake Arena is sold out for the card that was supposed to feature Inoue-Goodman, which was a big factor in Inoue's managers not wanting to postpone the event.
What's perhaps more problematic, however, is that Shimomachi is a 5-foot-10 southpaw, while Goodman is 5-foot-6 and fights from a right-handed stance. Changing strategy to a southpaw, without the benefit of much, if any, fighting against southpaw boxers, this end of training camp apparently encouraged Inoue's handlers to simply have him fight Goodman a month later.
A one-month postponement could, however, disrupt Inoue's plans for 2025.
Inoue intended to return to the ring on April 12 in Las Vegas if he defeated Goodman on December 24. His likely opponent for this fight would have been Mexican Alan Picasso (30-0-1, 16 KO), who must first defeat the Colombian. Yehison Cuello (13-2-1, 11 KO) Saturday night in Tijuana to remain the WBC's No. 1 challenger for one of Inoue's four championships. If Inoue is successful in back-to-back defenses against Goodman and Picasso, he would want to face WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani (29-0, 22 KOs) at 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 another fight, perhaps in his debut at 122 pounds, to also secure his spot in a showdown with Inoue.
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