Aussie boxer Sam Goodman lands shock featherweight world title fight against Nick Ball

After chasing a fight with Naoya Inoue for year, Sam Goodman has swooped in to ‘steal’ the Japanese champion’s future opponent.

Sam Goodman has landed a shock world title fight, with the Aussie boxer set to move up to featherweight to challenge WBA champion Nick Ball in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on August 16.

The fight will be the co-main event to English heavyweight sensation Moses Itauma’s step-up fight against veteran Dillian Whyte.

Goodman had been chasing super-bantamweight kingpin Naoya Inoue for two years, but jumped at the opportunity to face Ball instead in a move that will disrupt Inoue’s own fight plans.

Nicknamed ‘The Monster’, Inoue is lined up to defend his super-bantamweight crown against Murodjon Akhmadaliev in September in Japan. He was expected to then make a move to featherweight to challenge Ball later in the year.

Sam Goodman beat Cesar Vaca by unanimous decision last month. Picture: Getty Images

Goodman’s team instead opted to move up and fight Ball first, and will look at facing Inoue at featherweight instead.

“The Monster won’t fight us, so we will take his December opponent out and then he has to fight us,” Goodman’s manager, Peter Mitrevski told Code Sports.

“We aren’t afraid of monsters.

“He doesn’t want to fight us, so we’ll move up to featherweight and take on the featherweight monster.”

Ball and Goodman have indirect history too.

The Englishman’s main training partner, Brad Strand, was the man who cut Goodman in sparring just 10 days out from his first scheduled bout with Inoue last December.

The unbeaten Aussie twice missed out on a whopping seven-figure payday to fight Inoue, after the cut opened up again in sparring a month later.

Ball (L) stopped TJ Doheny in the 10th. Picture: Supplied

The double setbacks left Goodman so broke that he admitted to having to steal dog food from Coles before his comeback win over Cesar Vaca last month.

The 22-0-1 Ball is stocky and explosive, and won the WBA title in June last year.

He has defended it twice, most recently against Irish-Aussie veteran TJ Doheny, who Goodman beat by decision in 2023.

Ball’s win over Doheny nearly descended into chaos when the Englishman kicked the challenger in the back of the legs in the final seconds of a testy first round in Liverpool.

Goodman’s surprise featherweight world title fight was made official this weekend, and caps off a remarkable run for Aussie boxers on the world stage, with Tim Tszyu, Justis Huni, Jai Opetaia and George Kambosos all in world title fights over the next 10 weeks.

Originally published as Aussie boxer Sam Goodman lands shock featherweight world title fight against Nick Ball