Sam Goodman can kick Christmas off in style when he takes on Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue for super-bantamweight boxing glory on December 24 in Tokyo. After months of speculation, this masthead can reveal Goodman’s long-awaited title fight against Inoue is confirmed for Ariake Arena in Tokyo on Christmas Eve. “Sam Goodman’s mandatory in two sanctioning bodies and he deserves his shot,” No Limit boss Matt Rose told this masthead.
“He’s ready to go out and shock the world.” Ranked number one with the IBF and WBO, Goodman is Inoue’s mandatory IBF challenger, but has been forced to wait months for his bold title tilt to be confirmed. Goodman’s team put pen to paper weeks ago, and went into training camp in September, but the 26-year-old has been forced to wait until Inoue’s Japanese management team confirmed the fight.
That finally happened at a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday, with Inoue set to put his IBF, WBO, WBC, WBA and The Ring magazine titles on the line. Goodman has fought twice this year, putting his spot as mandatory challenger at risk in wins over Mark Schleibs and Chainoi Worawut in Wollongong. He then sacrificed a big payday to fight on Tim Tszyu’s world title card in Orlando last week so he could focus on preparing for Inoue.
Goodman was ringside for Inoue’s win over Luis Nery in May, but was accused of ducking ‘The Monster’ in favour of fight the unheralded Worawut. “I don’t read any of the comments – if you listen to the .