Sam Goodman suffered an eye injury and will have to pull out of his January 24 fight against unified super bantamweight champion Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue. The two fighters were scheduled to fight at the Ariake Arena, Koto-Ku, in Tokyo, Japan.
Goodman exits
No. 1 IBF and WBO ranked contender Goodman’s No Limit Boxing promoters report a “re-injury to the eye.” They are not saying when Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs) will be healthy enough to postpone the fight against the undefeated Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs).
If the injury keeps Goodman on the shelf for an extended period of time, Inoue will have to decide whether to back off the fight with him and move forward or sit and wait. It’s not the big fight that fans outside of Australia want to see.
Fans would love for Inoue to face WBA Interim Champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev (13-1, 10 KO) as a replacement as it would be a talent upgrade. Akhmadaliev and his promoter have been pushing the fight against Inoue for a long time without success.
This would be an ideal time. At this stage in his career, Inoue is out of pressure and does whatever he wants. He is Canelo at 122lb.
“No Limit Boxing regrets to announce that Sam Goodman has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled fight against Naoya Inoue on January 24 due to a recurring eye injury.
We wish Sam a full and speedy recovery and will update the event in due course.”
