Sam Goodman is preparing to do what only one other Australian fighter has ever achieved and win a world title off a Japanese fighter in Japan.

If he upsets the odds and beats Ryosuke Nishida for the interim IBF super-bantamweight belt, Goodman will join Lionel Rose in owning a rare piece of boxing history.

Several Aussies have won or defended titles in Japan, but only the legendary Rose – arguably the greatest of them all – did it against a local favourite in Japan when he scored a groundbreaking unanimous decision win over Fighting Harada in Tokyo in 1968.

Andrew Moloney became the latest to taste world title victory in Japan, but his momentous majority decision win over Mexico’s Willibaldo Perez.

Meanwhile, the great two-weight world titleholder Johnny Famechon won his WBC and The Ring featherweight world titles against Fighting Harada in Sydney, and defended the championship against the same man in Tokyo six months later.

Many others have fallen short in title defences or challenges over the years, but Goodman is adamant he has what it takes to buck the trend and join Rose in bringing world title glory back to Australia.

“I’m looking to follow in those footsteps and emulate what the great Lionel Rose did,” Goodman told Code Sports this week. “I want to put my name down in Australian folklore and bring this belt back home.

“That’s the plan. I’m just looking to emulate Lionel Rose and do the same job he did.

“Just a legend of Australian boxing and history, and now I get the opportunity to put my name forward and to do the same thing.”

After having two fights against the legendary Naoya Inoue scrapped due to cuts suffered in training, Goodman has eased off hard sparring and will fly out to Japan on Thursday ahead of the September 27 fight.

The 30-year-old Nishida is the former IBF bantamweight world champion and holds an 11-1 record with two knockouts.

His solitary defeat came in a bantamweight unification showdown with the formidable Junto Nakatani last year, before he moved up a weight class and bounced back with an impressive victory in February.

“He’s a former world champion, so he’s a very good fighter,” Goodman said. “He’s a good southpaw, and his weapon is his backhand to the body.

“He’s got a good shot straight down the pipe too. He’s a tricky cat.

“Early on, I’ve gotta work him out, so it’s about doing that as quickly as possible, then executing my game plan.

“But he’s a good fighter, and you don’t get to this level without being a real formidable opponent, so I’m well aware of the guy I’ve got in front of me, but I’m ready to take him out.

“That’s where me head’s at.

“That’s what I’m ready to do.”

Australians in world title fights in Japan

Lionel Rose defeated Fighting Harada for the WBC, WBA and The Ring bantamweight world titles in February 1968. Rose’s unanimous decision victory turned him into an overnight national hero. When an estimated 100,000 people gathered at Essendon Airport when he returned home, Rose thought The Beatles must have been on his plane and the fans were there to see them.

Rose defended the belts against Takao Sakurai in Japan later the same year, and lost a WBC featherweight world title tilt against Yoshiaki Numata in 1971.

Johnny Famechon defended his WBC and The Ring featherweight world titles against Fighting Harada in Sydney in 1969, winning a narrow points decision in a bout refereed and judged by the great Willie Pep. The pair had a rematch the following year in Tokyo, with Famechon stopping Harada in the 14th round.

Billy Dib lost a 2015 WBC super featherweight world title fight to Takashi Miura in Tokyo.

Jason Moloney lost his WBO bantamweight world title at the Tokyo Dome in 2024 to Yoshiki Takei, and went down swinging against Tenshin Nasukawa last year. Earlier, Jason had been stopped by pound-for-pound great Naoya Inoue in Las Vegas in 2020.

The Moloney brothers are huge fan favourites in Japan, and Andrew Moloney claimed an emotional majority decision win over Perez to become IBF super-flyweight world champion.

In 2021, Harry Garside broke a decades-long Olympic boxing drought when he won a bronze at the Tokyo games.