Australian super bantamweight contender Sam Goodman appears to be plagued by injuries as another injury he suffered has forced him to pull out of the re-scheduled January 24 bout against undisputed 122-pound champion Naoya Inoue. With little time to spare, South Korean contender Yee Joon Kim has emerged to replace Goodman as the underdog challenger. The Ariake Arena based in Tokyo, Japan, will continue to remain the chosen venue while no other changes have been reported on the undercard.

A cut that Sam Goodman (19-0, 8 KO’s) suffered during training prior to a bout scheduled for December 26 against Japanese undisputed super bantamweight (122 lbs) champion Naoya Inoue forced the match to be rescheduled to January 24.

However, Goodman has now been forced to definitively pull out of his match against Inoue after another injury put him on the sidelines. As revealed by Goodman’s promoter, the Australian-based No Limit Boxing, Goodman a case of an earlier eye injury re-emerging forced the Australian contender to withdraw from the January 24 bout:

“No Limits Boxing regrets to announce that Sam Goodman has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled bout against Naoya Inoue on January 24 due to a recurrence of his eye injury,” No Limit’s press release reads.

“We wish Sam a full and speedy recovery and will provide updates on the event in due course.“

Naoya Inoue will now be facing a relative unknown quantity in South Korean challenger Yee Joon Kim (21-2-2, 13 KO’s) who is currently only ranked with the WBO at #11 in their super bantamweight rankings. Despite only fitting the bill as a top 15 contender with the WBO, Kim will be allowed to challenge for Inoue’s other world titles [WBA, WBC & IBF]. As is often be the case with bouts where a champion defends multiple world titles, it is not entirely necessary for a challenger to be ranked in the top 15 with every sanctioning body as long as they are considered a genuine challenger with one, hence why Kim is allowed to challenge for all the 122-pound marbles.