Some nine months after Goodman was forced to cancel his Christmas Eve Tokyo showdown against Inoue, he is now moving up a division to challenge Ball.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the UK superstar shares his Liverpool gym with the fighter who effectively set it all in motion — British super bantamweight Strand.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Only 10 days out from Christmas last year, and after being flown Down Under for several weeks of sparring, it was 28-year-old Strand who cut Goodman open in what was to be his final sparring session before fighting Inoue for all four super bantamweight straps.<\/p>\n
Incredibly, the moment ignited a chain of events that would initially see the Inoue bout delayed, before Goodman was then split in sparring a second time, again in sparring \u2013 and the Japanese blockbuster scrapped.<\/p>\n
As a result, Goodman not only lost his $1 million purse, or underwent double stitching on the serious wound, but then disappeared into such a financial struggle he would later admit to stealing dog food from Coles. <\/p>\n
“He’s a freak!”: Peters extends KO run | 02:53<\/p>\n
And now in the latest bizarre twist, the man who cut him open is back — and this time helping Ball with detailed preparations for his fifth title blockbuster.<\/p>\n
Asked initially about Goodman\u2019s double cut history, and what it might mean for their own fight, Ball shrugged: \u201cI\u2019m aware of it because my mate done it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrad Strand done it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went over to spar him last year and was the one who cut him.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut while I\u2019m aware of it, I\u2019m not really focused on any cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat just is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
OK, but picking your mate\u2019s brain on his time with Team Goodman has to be an advantage, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it is,\u201d the fighter agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd all the little one percenters, they do add up.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you have to do your job on fight night.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing else really matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the build up, all the preparation and everything else, it\u2019s good.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when it comes down to it, the thing that really matters is fight night … you can\u2019t really look into anything else too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: Nikita is better than Tim | 03:46<\/p>\n
So thoughts on Goodman\u2019s susceptibility to being cut again?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t really care,\u201d Ball continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen the clip of them sparring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think (Goodman) actually put it up onto his Instagram, and Brad showed me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s there to see, where he lands the shot that cut him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it does look like it was a good spar, going back and forth.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut sparring is sparring, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything can happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he gets cut? That\u2019s boxing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, what matters is fight night \u2026 no headguard, eight ounce gloves, that\u2019s what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Goodman has also gone undefeated through eight years and 20 fights \u2013 and has been the longtime mandatory for Inoue \u2013 Ball admits to knowing little about the Albion Park slugger.<\/p>\n
So as for his thoughts when the Australian\u2019s name was brought to him?<\/p>\n
\u201cDidn\u2019t really matter to be honest,\u201d he said simply. \u201cIt\u2019s just another opponent in front of me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I found out it was him, it was \u2018just another one\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother one to the list.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne more to get out of the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really know much about him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whittaker on Tszyu – ‘He can comeback’ | 03:07<\/p>\n
Well, he is undefeated …<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s good,\u201d Ball continued. \u201cBecause he\u2019s hungry, isn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s not going to want to let that go.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a big opportunity here to make a name for himself \u2013 and become world champion \u2013 but my title, it isn\u2019t up for grabs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, Ball is Britain\u2019s only boxing champion.<\/p>\n
But as for enjoying the spotlight that comes with it?<\/p>\n
\u201cNot so much the spotlight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want the spotlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to do what is best for me, the people around me, and the people who have believed in me since day one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all that matters to me, making them proud.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the spotlight \u2026 ah, I don\u2019t really care for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecoming world champion, I can always look back and say that, say I\u2019ve done what I always said I would as a kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow though, it\u2019s about staying focused.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m hungrier than ever to be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want something that I\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m not just going to give it up because I\u2019ve worked so hard to get it.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He\u2019s the sparring partner who cut Sam Goodman to the tune of $1 million \u2013 and now Englishman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-51186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}