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

NAOYA INOUE might 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 December 24 in Tokyo, suffered a cut during a sparring session on -A week that forced him to withdraw from their 12th round. title fight that night. Goodman was cut just above his left eyelid during what was expected to be his last sparring session before flying from Australia to Japan on Sunday.

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

Boxing News has confirmed that Goodman’s handlers pushed for the entire event to be postponed to January 24 to accommodate the No. 1 contender in both 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 scheduled to match up with another Japanese boxer, Misaki Hirano (11- 1, 4 KOs) , in a 10-rounder on the December 24 undercard.

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 lists Simomachi as its No. 7 contender in the featherweight division (126 pounds).

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

Possibly 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 strategies to a southpaw, without the benefit of much, if any, sparring against left-handed boxers, this late in training camp apparently encouraged Inoue’s handlers to simply force him to fight Goodman a month later.

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

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