PAIN IS temporary, so the motivational speech goes. Humans are, understandably, most influenced by the present tense and, when that present is consumed by pain, whether physical, or mental, or both, it is hard to imagine a future without it. The quote, therefore, aims to remind us that better times lie ahead; that there will eventually come a time when this pain no longer exists.
Another take on the same theme is the Buddhist principle that suffering is the path to enlightenment. And it is an enlightened Sam Goodman who, in his current pain-free present, is looking forward to a better future, and rationalising the suffering that defined a difficult spell around the turn of the year.
“It was a massive disappointment; tough times, very hard to deal with, even more so the second time,” says Goodman of back-to-back cancellations of the biggest fight of his life, with the latter occasion seemingly scuppering for good his shot at Naoya Inoue.
Those two Tokyo fixtures – the first on Christmas Eve, the second are month later – were both called off when Goodman was cut in sparring. The first time came during his very last sparring session, 10 days before fight night. The second time, it happened in his very first spar back.
“It was much bigger the second time; it opened up a lot worse,” Goodman says of the slice above his left eye that took four stitches the first time, and then required plastic surgery the second.
With hindsight, one month was never likely to be enough for Goodman’s cut to heal fully, but a shot at the pound-for-pound claimant and all four super-bantamweight belts was never going to be turned down, regardless of the circumstances.
Hindsight would also suggest Goodman was unwise to spar again prior to the revised date. At the very least, protecting the cut would have preserved a sizeable payday – but the unbeaten Australian says it was never about the money. He was coming to win, and his already-slender chances of doing so would have been worsened without sparring.
“You don’t want to go into a fight like that with no sparring,” he says.
“To be honest, if I went there and done it [took the rescheduled fight without sparring], it would have been for one thing, and that’s a payday. I wouldn’t have been able to compete at my best.
“I went weeks after it was rescheduled with no sparring. I gave it four weeks to heal; didn’t spar until right before I was about to leave.”
And then the very same thing happened.
This time, it came just seven days before the fight. Having accommodated a postponement once already, Inoue this time elected to fight a substitute opponent instead, Kim Ye-joon, winning comfortably enough and then moving on to a future that didn’t involve Goodman.
This left the Albion Park man on the outside, especially with the IBF and WBO removing his mandatory contender status.
“I knew it wasn’t getting rescheduled again,” he says. “My team haven’t heard from them [Inoue’s team] since.”
As Goodman sat on the sidelines, he contemplated not only the opportunities missed in December and January, but also the lack of any other apparent route to a world title shot any time soon, with all four belts held by Inoue, a man who by now had a plan in place that would occupy him well into 2025.
This uncertainty was a pain that cut deeper than anything inflicted on Goodman by his sparring partners, but this suffering did indeed lead to enlightenment – an enlightenment that things could have been so much worse had the Inoue fight gone ahead at the second time of asking.
Goodman, of course, was coming to win, and believed he would win; that he would extend his undefeated record (now 20-0, 8 KOs) and return to New South Wales as champion. But if his flesh, and his dreams, hadn’t been torn up in that first spar back, it would surely have happened in the fight itself.
“Obviously it [the healed cut] wasn’t ready to take a proper hit,” he says. “Look what happened even with 16oz gloves and headguards. It [the Inoue fight] could have been over with one shot.”
Which would have left Goodman with a loss on his record, and possibly an early one that would have sent him right to the back of the world-title pecking order.
That would have been a much worse fate than the one he endured. Now, the pain of the cut, of plastic surgery, and of time spent mulling an uncertain future, has indeed proved temporary and, back to the present, has largely been forgotten, assuaged by the news that Goodman will get a world title shot after all, and much sooner than he had been anticipating. The 26-year-old will now challenge Englishman Nick Ball, the WBA champion up at featherweight, on Saturday in Riyadh.
While Goodman has spent the majority of his career at super-bantam, where he earned his lofty world ranking with wins over the likes of Richie Mepranum, Juan Miguel Elorde, TJ Doheny and Ra’eese Aleem, he did win the Australian featherweight title in 2021 and insists “I’m a decent size for a featherweight too; it’s still a [weight] cut to make the limit”.
So, he has tested the 126lbs waters before, but more importantly has tested that troublesome eye, having returned to action in May and completed 10 rounds unscathed.
“I had a good Mexican opponent [19-1-1 Cesar Vaca Espinoza] and had a good win. It was good to get back in there,” he says of ending a 10-month hiatus.
“Now I’m super pumped I got this opportunity against Nick Ball. He’s a tough opponent, but all world champions are.
“He’s a bit of a little bull; decent skills as well; short and strong; a bit of a handful; presents some challenges, but it’s up to me to deal with them on the night.
“My hand gets raised, by any means. I’m the better fighter and I need to show that.”
If he does show that, it will be in front of the most influential man in boxing, Turki Alalshikh, and impressing His Excellency can open some very lucrative doors. Just ask Nick Ball – and Naoya Inoue.
Riyadh Season signed Inoue to a $20million deal at the end of last year and set up a four-fight plan, which began with ‘The Monster’ beating Ramon Cardenas in May, continues against Murodjon Akhmadaliev next month and, should he keep winning, will take him up to featherweight either by the end of this year or in spring 2026.
The assumption is that Inoue’s first target at 126lbs will be Ball, but with Goodman sure that he’s set to dethrone the Liverpudlian, might Inoue yet feature in his future after all?
“Everyone’s still talking about that, but at the moment it’s neither here nor there,” he says.
“My focus is on Nick Ball and getting that done, and after that, yeah, we can look at that fight for sure. My thoughts haven’t changed – he’s still human.”
A human who feels pain, just like any other, as is Goodman. But at least Goodman now knows pain is only temporary.
