Sam Goodman has been warned not to risk brawling with Nick Ball.
The Australian on Saturday becomes the third challenger to Ball in his reign as WBA featherweight champion, and does so on the occasion of his biggest fight.
It is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and having moved up from junior featherweight that Goodman for the first time fights for a world title. He also does so having missed out on a date with Naoya Inoue in January because of a cut, and when it is little secret that in the event of victory for Ball, plans exist for Ball to fight Inoue next.
The nature of the occasion or an awareness of those plans may tempt Goodman, 26, to attempt to impress instead of focusing on outboxing the defending champion.
Tony Del Vecchio led TJ Doheny into fights with Ball in March and Goodman in 2023 and has also previously worked Ball’s corner. His knowledge of both is such that he is wary on Goodman’s behalf of Ball’s power and strength, and he therefore believes his fellow Australian’s greatest chance of victory involves him using his “impressive” feet.
“[Goodman] doesn’t really have much power to speak of,” Del Vecchio told BoxingScene. “That’s evident in his record; the knockout ratio isn’t high. If you look at who he stopped, they deserved to be stopped, but as soon as you get someone that can handle a bit of a shot, Sam’s not getting him out of there. They’ll use his impressive footwork – which he has plenty of – and a lot of speed, and a lot of accuracy. But that’s if you let him.
“When TJ fought [Goodman], in the second round he got TJ with a flash knockdown; he gets up real quick. By round seven, for some reason Sam wanted to mix it up with TJ. TJ hit him with a good left cross-right hook combination – I wouldn’t say he wobbled him but Sam took a bit of a step back because he was put off with a big shot. I was looking to get him into a brawl. I got TJ off the couch on short notice so we weren’t super fit, but that’s what it was – the footwork. In, out; in, out, and a bit of accuracy, and punches in combinations.
“[Goodman] has that amateur pedigree about him as well. The ones that have given him trouble are the ones that have been able to slow him down; make him plant his feet ever so slightly. If you allow him to keep moving, he will outpoint and outscore you.
“[But] he’s easily lulled into a brawl, depending on the size of the night. He’ll be looking to make a statement. He got given the fight with Inoue; got the cut. I’m worried Sam might be lulled into a brawl.”
Del Vecchio is in Los Angeles overseeing Linn Sandstrom’s preparations for her WBA junior bantamweight title fight with Jasmine Artega on August 23, but having previously travelled to Ball’s home city of Liverpool, England with Doheny he reflected: “With Ball, what we were worried about at the time was his strength – he’s a ball of muscle, no pun intended. He’s strong. He’s supremely fit; his cardio is of a high level, so round 12 he was going to be as good as he was in round one. We probably went one round too long, because TJ does have that power – wishing for that miracle strike – and we pulled him out because there was simply too much pressure. So one, the pressure, two, he has power, and three, his supreme fitness. That’s the trifecta.
“A mover’s going to give him problems, but with Nick, if he tries to put the pressure on and you try to get him off you and he feels no power, you’re kind of fucked. He’s going to say ‘That didn’t hurt’ and come at you. He’s going to do a Mike Tyson peekaboo; walk you down, get you somewhere, and go ‘Let’s go’. The smaller the ring, he’s going to cut you down, and he will cut you down. There’s nothing about it. And he’s getting better as a boxer.
“His defense is basically ‘I’m going to hit you more than you hit me’. He does get hit a little bit. He trudges – he’s not your typical, galloping, footwork-sort of a guy. He’ll Mike Tyson your arse. He’ll trudge you down, and when he gets there he’ll go to town. If you’ve got good footwork; lateral movement… he’s lineal – he’s good backwards and forwards. But lateral movement I think will work for Sam, because he’s good at that. Maybe [Ball] has come good with that since. But a boxer with good footwork is gonna get him in trouble.
“What [Goodman] doesn’t have over Nick Ball is that tenacity. What [Ball] did to us is what he’s going to do to Sam, and if that’s the case Sam’s in for a hard night. As much as I want all Aussies to win, I think Sam’s in for a hard night if he doesn’t watch his Ps and Qs. That’s Nick Ball. He’s not gonna want many shots. Sam’s been on his arse a couple of times with some nondescript fighters.
“As an Aussie I dream for the Aussie to win – it’d be great – but as far as I know it’s going to be a hard fight for Sam. It’s definitely going to be a test of who he is as a boxer. It’s a massive fight.”
