Naoya Inoue’s Christmas Eve super-bantamweight world title battle towards Sam Goodman in Tokyo has been postponed to January 24, his gymnasium introduced Saturday after the Australian lower his eye in sparring.
“We have been knowledgeable right now from Goodman’s facet that he had sustained an harm,” Inoue’s Ohashi Health club mentioned in a press release.
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“We determined to postpone the battle after discussing with Goodman’s facet the standing of his restoration,” it mentioned, including the battle would now happen on January 24.
Goodman harm his left eye throughout his last coaching session earlier than jetting to Japan to face the undisputed champion, the Australian’s promoter and his supervisor informed Sydney’s Each day Telegraph.
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Goodman, the necessary challenger for Inoue’s WBO and IBF titles, wanted 4 stitches and was informed he couldn’t battle for 4 weeks, the newspaper mentioned.
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“He’s nonetheless going to be nice, however we couldn’t let him battle with the lower in 10 days’ time,” his supervisor Pete Mitrevski mentioned.
Japan’s Inoue, who has a 28-0 report with 25 knockouts, beat Eire’s TJ Doheny in his most up-to-date defence in Tokyo in September.
The battle towards Goodman, who has a 19-0 report with eight KOs, was set to be his final in his homeland earlier than an anticipated bout in Las Vegas subsequent 12 months.
Inoue was attributable to defend his super-bantamweight titles for the third time since changing into undisputed champion in December final 12 months.
He’s simply the second man to develop into undisputed world champion at two completely different weights because the four-belt period started in 2004. American Terence Crawford was the primary.