The Japanese Naoya Inoue, undisputed super bantamweight champion (WBC/WBA/IBF/WBO), will fight well on January 24 but will finally face the South Korean Kim Ye-joon, after the withdrawal of the Australian Sam Goodman, a- it was announced on Saturday.
Sam Goodman was originally scheduled to face Inoue on Christmas Eve on December 24 in Tokyo, but he had already postponed the fight for a month due to an eye injury.
Again Saturday, “Sam Goodman was forced to withdraw from his scheduled fight against Naoya Inoue on January 24 due to a recurrence of his eye injury”declared its promoters in a press release.
Goodman, 26, injured his left eye again in training before leaving for Japan, his promoter and manager told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. The challenger for Inoue’s WBO and IBF titles required four stitches and must observe a four-week fight-free period, according to the newspaper.
In the wake of Saturday, the entourage of « Monster » Inoue announced that the undefeated boxer would still fight on January 24, but against Kim, ranked No.11 by the WBO.
“Of course Inoue was surprised”Hideyuki Ohashi, the president of his Ohashi Gym club, told reporters in Yokohama. “This is the first time he has had to face another fighter after a postponement, but Inoue and I are taking it in a positive way.”.
At 31, Inoue has achieved 25 of his 28 victories by knockout. In September, he successfully defended his titles by stopping Irishman TJ Doheny. He reunited the four belts in December 2023.
He is only the second man, after American Terence Crawford, to become undisputed world champion in two different weight categories since the start of the four-belt era in 2004. Inoue had previously dominated at bantamweight.
