Naoya Inoue vs. Sam Goodman December 24 Date Rocked by Cut

Naoya Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs) and Sam Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs) will no longer be fighting on December 24.

A cut sustained by Goodman above his left eye has caused a one month postponement of the bout. Instead of December 24, the two will instead fight on January 24. The location of the bout, the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan, remains the same.

Boxing writer Ben Damon was among the first to report the news, including a picture of the cut on his X post. There was speculation that Inoue would proceed with the date and instead fight Toshiki Shimomachi. However, that wound up not materialising.

Naoya Inoue vs. Sam Goodman Shock Postponement News

Naoya Inoue Confirms Fight Blow

In a post on X, Inoue officially confirmed the postponement.

“The title defense was scheduled for December 24th, just 10 days away, but had to be postponed due to an injury Goodman sustained during sparring,” said Inoue in the post written in Japanese.

“I’m sorry to everyone who was looking forward to it. We hope you will come again on the new dates [sic]!!! New date: Friday, January 24th at Ariake Arena. Let’s fight at our best.”

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Inoue’s Japanese promoter, Ohashi Promotions, also confirmed the postponement in a post to X in Japanese.

“Due to Goodman’s injury, the event has been postponed to the following date. Friday, January 24th at Ariake Arena. All preliminary matches have also been postponed. For those who have already purchased tickets, the ticket issuing date of December 17th has been postponed. We will inform you of the new ticket issuing date and cancellation method as soon as it is decided. For those who wish to purchase new tickets, we will accept them at a later date, but the date, time, number of tickets, etc. have not yet been decided.”

Sam Goodman Reacts

Goodman took to Instagram to comment on the situation, confirming the news in a post.

“Hey everyone, just wanted to let everybody know what sort of happened this morning,” said Goodman. “I was having my last spar before we flew out to Tokyo and what a freak accident. Freak accident. Got cut, resulting in four stitches. If I had my way I’d like to proceed with the fight, but, taking it on the go like this my team…[wouldn’t] let me go into this fight compromised.”

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“Absolutely devasted to be doing this. It is what it is. Just want to say sorry to everyone who’s coming over. I know how hard it was to make that decision and to come over and support me, especially this time of the year. Sorry to everyone over in Japan who is also excited for this fight and to Inoue and his team as well. I know they would have been preparing hard for a good fight. I just don’t want my opportunity to go anywhere, I want to fight this guy…”

Undisputed Showdown

When they face each other on January 24, Goodman will be challenging for the undisputed super bantamweight championship held by Inoue. The Japanese fighter became undisputed following a tenth-round knockout of Marlon Tapales in December last year. Inoue later defended that status with stoppage wins over Luis Nery and TJ Doheny this year.