Australia’s leading junior-featherweight contender Sam Goodman is hoping for one more fight this year – providing the hands he injured last month against “Rock Man” Worawut have sufficiently healed.
That fight could even come against the winner of the clash in September clash between pound-for-pound star Naoya Inoue and former Goodman victim TJ Doheny.
Goodman is ranked number one by the WBO and IBF for Inoue’s titles, but the 19-0 (8 KOs) challenger from Albion Park in New South Wales had a tough outing against Thailand’s Worawut on July 10, when winning a gritty 12-round fight. While he wants activity to stay ready for when his big opportunity comes, he won’t want too many tougher fights than that.
“A bit of both,” the 25 year old acknowledged when asked whether it was good to have the activity but perhaps not so good to be in such a battle. “The hands didn’t like it, obviously. I did one of the bones in my hand in round four and done another in about round eight or nine, so it was a tough one on the hands. He had a hard head.”
Goodman is wearing a splint when he goes out, and has regular physiotherapist appointments while he rebuilds the strength in his hands.
“They’ve got me going through a few little exercises – I’m starting to build a bit of range of motion back into the hand and from today [Wednesday] we’re starting to build a bit of strength back in it, in terms of using a ball to squeeze and working with bands and stuff to do a little bit of work the next couple of weeks,” he said. “Hopefully, in about four weeks, I can start to put some weight on it, and then from six-to-eight weeks hopefully start punching.
“I was pretty lucky to be honest with what I’ve done. They’re undisplaced fractures, so the bones haven’t actually moved, they’re just clean breaks, so I was pretty lucky.”
Goodman will have to watch Inoue from the sidelines on September 3. Nursing injured hands is new territory for him, although it’s also another lesson he has learned on his way to his ultimate goal.
“Not like this,” he said of previous hand issues. “Not after a fight. I’ve had some niggles with my hands over the years, but we’ve stayed on top of things more these days. Every training session I’m taping up as if it was a real fight. I’m doing everything I can now to protect the hands.”
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