Sam Goodman fighting in July

Sam Goodman, the mandatory challenger to Naoya Inoue's undisputed super bantamweight world championship, has bizarrely turned down a September date with Inoue in hopes of securing a December fight instead. This is despite being offered a career high 1 million dollar purse. In the meantime, he has agreed to fight Chainoi Worawut, a 25-0-1 fighter from Thailand. Worawut has 15 KOs in boxing and fought over 200 times in Muay Thai, but has no notable wins in boxing. The fight will take place July 10 in Australia. Inoue intends to fight in September anyway. The leading candidates are former IBF super bantamweight champion TJ Doheny, former 3 division world titlist John Riel Casimero, and former unified super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev. If both Goodman and Inoue win these fights, they will meet in December. But it seems absolutely insane that Goodman is not only going to risk taking a loss himself, but also risk Inoue possibly losing to Akhmadaliev, Casimero, or Doheny in the meantime. Of course Inoue would be the big favorite against any of them and I'd pick him to win by KO, but those are all capable guys and not one of them would land Goodman a 1 million dollar payday if he has to challenge them instead. Goodman got in the ring after the Nery KO and demanded that Inoue fight him or vacate the titles... and now he decides he wants a tuneup and will let Casimero, Doheny, or MJ get the next shot at the champ.