Sam Goodman talks ‘mission’ ahead of world title fight against Naoya Inoue in Japan

Sam Goodman’s team will celebrate Australia Day on January 24th in Tokyo, with his rescheduled super-bantamweight world title now even more important according to the man himself.

Sam Goodman’s team will celebrate Australia Day on January 24th in Tokyo, with a bigger contingent of his ‘Mad Bunch’ supporter crew now able to make the trip to see him fight Naoya Inoue in Japan.

Goodman’s underdog super-bantamweight world title tilt was hastily rescheduled from Christmas Eve to January 24 after the Albion Park boxer suffered a cut during his last sparring session on Saturday.

One upside of the later date is that many more of his fervent followers who weren’t able to travel around Christmas are now able to be there.

Goodman had a unique clause in his contract giving him 100 tickets for his support crew.

“We’re definitely going to have to grab a few more tickets now,” Goodman told this masthead in his first interview since the fight was rescheduled.

“It’s going to be even bigger now, which is great.”

Sam Goodman suffered a cut during a sparring session. Photo: Brendan Bradford

On the downside, Goodman’s strict diet will still be in place on Christmas.

“I’ll be spending Christmas in the gym and just reminding myself of why I’m doing this,” he said. “Nothing else matters, not Christmas or any of that stuff.

“It’s all irrelevant to me at the moment. I’m on a mission and the mission hasn’t changed.”

Goodman capped off the most tumultuous day of his life on Saturday the only way he knows how – by going for a run.

At 10.25 that morning, with blood still streaming down his face, he was told the fight with Inoue was off.

An hour later, with four stitches in his eye, he sat at a cafe in Cronulla drinking a long black and contemplating how it all went so wrong.

By Saturday evening though, the 26-year-old received confirmation the fight had been rescheduled for Friday, January 24 in Tokyo.

The only thing he could think to do was lace up his running shoes and hit the pavement for a brisk 8km around Albion Park.

“I just had to go for a run,” he said. “As soon as the date was changed, it was just back to work. The job hasn’t changed.

“It’s obviously disappointing, but I don’t have time to sit around and feel sorry for myself and mope around.

“There’s still a job to be done, and that’s winning these belts. It’s just been delayed, so I just can’t take the time to be feeling sorry for myself.”

Goodman’s fight will now take place in January. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

There were a few emotional hours on Saturday though.

“I had a million things going through my head,” Goodman said.

“Whether Inoue was going to find a replacement.

“I might lose the fight, it might not happen. It was a rollercoaster, Saturday.

“I wasn’t involved in the back and forth, my team just gave me two updates. One that they were trying to get the fight rescheduled and the other was that it had been done.

“I’ve gotta thank my team – Pete Mitrevski and Matty Rose – they definitely did their jobs and got the best possible situation for me.”

The undefeated Goodman says the cut was just a freak accident that happens in boxing sometimes.

“It wasn’t a big punch or anything though,” he said.

“I was in my last week of sparring and had a bit of a black eye, so maybe it was just in a weak area.”

Goodman will face Japan's Naoya Inoue. Picture: Philip FONG / AFP

After getting himself into the best shape of his life, Goodman will use the extra time to finetune some little details before the biggest fight of his life.

“It’s just more time to get even better and polish a few things up,” he said.

“I won’t be able to do full contact for a little bit, but it’s just more time to grow, get better and improve.

“I’m super-fit, I’ve done plenty of rounds – it’s not like I need any more rounds.

“Now it’s just about healing this eye up and getting to the fight as best as possible.”

Originally published as Sam Goodman talks ‘mission’ ahead of world title fight against Naoya Inoue in Japan