The highly anticipated fight between Japan’s Naoya Inoue and Australia’s Sam Goodman, which was scheduled to take place on January 24, suffered another setback, which, together with the initial one that forced the promoters to postpone it from its original date of December 24, led to its cancellation.
What was the incident that caused the fight to be suspended?
Goodman suffered another cut to the head during a training session last Saturday, which is why he will undergo plastic surgery and miss the opportunity to face the Japanese at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
The original cut that postponed the fight in December occurred during an open training session with Goodman’s last sparring partner of the camp, after which the Australian would fly to Tokyo
Goodman refrained from sparring and only moved with training partners in the gym, but incredibly on Saturday morning the cut opened by itself, No Limit promoter Matt Rose told Fox Sports Australia.
Incredibly, Rose said she was “doing just that on Saturday morning when the cut opened up again“
Goodman is devastated after the unfortunate incident
According to Rose, Goodman was “distressed, and his whole training and promotional team, shattered (…) After everything Sam went through the first time, and now for it to happen again… I really don’t know what to say. There are no words. The amount of time that everyone has put into this. It’s just devastating,” said the promoter.
Inoue will now face South Korean Ye Joon Kim at the same venue, and on the same date as the second bout with the Australian.
Goodman, for his part, came out to apologise for the events: “If it was up to me, I’d like to go ahead with the fight. But to face a guy like this, my team just told me that I would be compromised (…) I’m absolutely devastated to be doing this. But it is what it is. I just want to apologise to everyone who came.”
Read the full article here
