NAOYA Inoue’s undisputed super-bantamweight title defence against Sam Goodman is off after a “recurrence of Goodman’s eye injury” forced the challenger to withdraw from the bout for a second time.
Less than a month on from the postponement of their original December date, a statement released by Goodman’s promoters, No Limit Boxing, announced that the rescheduled January 24th contest would also not go ahead due to another injury to the Australian’s eye.
“No Limit Boxing regrets to announce that Sam Goodman has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled bout against Naoya Inoue on January 24 due to a recurrence of his eye injury.
“We wish Sam a full and speedy recovery and will provide updates on the event in due course.”
In an interview with Fox Sports, Goodman’s promoter, Matt Rose, confirmed the injury occurred in sparring, and went on to reveal the 26-year-old would now undergo plastic surgery in a bid to mend the issue.
“It’s just devastating,” said Rose.
“After everything Sam went through the first time around, and now to have it happen again. I really don’t know what to say.
“There aren’t any words. The amount of time everyone has put into this. All the sacrifices Sam has made. It only happened this morning. We’ll now have to try and get him in for plastic surgery in the next 24 hours to have any hope of ensuring this mends.
“For this to open like it has again, he’s obviously got soft skin there that we need to look at. It’s just devastating.”
At the time of writing it remains unclear as to whether Japanese star Inoue, one of the sport’s premier attractions, will seek out a late-replacement opponent.
