Sam Goodman wants to return to the ring before the end of 2025 after experiencing defeat for the first time against Nick Ball.
The Australian impressed in defeat when challenging for the WBA featherweight title against England’s Ball in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia earlier in August, and having flown from there to Dubai for a holiday he has already started plotting his next move.
Prior to fighting Ball, Goodman, 26, had been scheduled to fight Naoya Inoue of Japan until a cut forced first a delay and then his withdrawal and he wants to compensate for that by fighting for a third time by the end of the year.
In May he outpointed, in his home of Sydney, Australia, the Mexican Cesar Vaca Espinoza at junior featherweight, but he then moved up to featherweight to earn the biggest purse of his career against Ball, and he told BoxingScene: “I want to fight again this year for sure. I want to get back in there; get back in the winner’s circle. Do that as soon as possible. End of November; whatever date in December, I’d like to be back. I was held out of the ring last year [fighting twice in 2024] – I’d like to get three fights this year for sure.
“Anyone with a belt [is my target]. The names are irrelevant. I’ll go out there and fight my fight regardless of who I’m put in front of. My goals haven’t changed. It’s all about becoming a world champion. I’m not stopping ‘till I get there.
“I can do both [junior featherweight or featherweight]. I’ll be taking the best and quickest route to a world title. Whatever opportunity presents itself – I can do both. I felt strong at featherweight; I wasn’t blown away. Everyone was going on about Nick Ball’s physicality; to be honest, I didn’t feel like I was in with a super strong fighter; I didn’t feel I was any different.
“He was explosive; the harder thing to deal with him was probably where the shots were coming from. He was so low to the ground. It was just the awkwardness of where shots were coming from from him. I felt strong at the weight; I felt good. I can still do super bantamweight as well. I’ll leave it up to my team to deliver whatever the best route to a world title is.”
Goodman and those around him continue to believe that he deserved victory in Riyadh. If he regardless proved himself at world level the expectation remains that Ball will be installed as Inoue’s next opponent in the event of Inoue defeating Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan on September 14, and Goodman will know better than most that fighting Inoue represents an even more lucrative opportunity than one in Saudi Arabia.
“It still stings,” he said. “It hurts. I’ve watched it back once and I found it a little bit frustrating. I still felt in control of the whole fight but I let him have a couple of moments, and that made it look closer than it needed to. That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve looked at, but I’ll look at it again with my coaches when I get home and really break it down. I’m a bit disappointed still. But even with that I think a few of the cards were written before the fight began.
“I could have been a lot cleaner; a lot smarter with my work in certain spots. I don’t want to delve into it too much. But I am better than what I showed and I will be better next time out. I’m going to learn from the experience and grow from it. I can’t leave these fights close – I’ve got to be dominant the whole way through. I’ve got to be better and I will be better.
“There’s not too much positive about losing. I’m a winner through and through. There’s a lot of people going on about this and that, ‘Your stock’, and all this shit – I couldn’t really care. It’s about winning every fight I enter and I didn’t get the job done. That’s all there is to it. My focus is rest up, heal up a little bit, and when I get back to home – back to work – it’s about getting better and growing as a fighter and evolving.
“I’m not sitting around crying about it but it fucking hurts. It’s not an enjoyable experience at all. But it’s what’s happened, and it’s what I’ve got to deal with. I’ll be getting back in the saddle – nothing really changes. I’m still chasing world titles; I ain’t stopping ‘till I’m getting there. It’s all good – it’s all sweet. It’s not a nice result but I’ll get on with it. Back to work.
“Overseas, I understand I was relatively unknown. It was his team’s promotion. But, fuck, that 118-110 scorecard – the rounds that guy actually gave me, I didn’t think I won those rounds. I thought there was other rounds I’d won and they went the other way. It’s crazy – that one and the 117[-111; the third card was 115-113]. I’m not going to sit here and cry about judges. It is what it is, but I didn’t think I got a fair shake of it. It’s me job to leave absolutely no doubt in those guys around the ring’s minds, and it’s not what I’ve done. I’ve got to be better; I will be better.”
