{"id":74135,"date":"2025-08-17T03:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T03:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74135\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T03:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T03:11:09","slug":"aussie-boxing-star-sam-goodman-beaten-in-wba-featherweight-title-fight-as-judges-scorecards-questioned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74135\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie boxing star Sam Goodman beaten in WBA featherweight title fight as judges\u2019 scorecards questioned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judges\u2019 scorecards have been questioned after Sam Goodman\u2019s audacious crack at a boxing<\/a> world title was shot down by English champion Nick Ball in a 12-round Saudi Arabian thriller.<\/p>\n

The Australian (20-1) was beaten for the first time on Sunday (AEST), after moving up a division in an attempt to snatch the WBA featherweight belt.<\/p>\n

All three judges favoured Ball\u2019s power over Goodman\u2019s ring craft \u2014 scores were 117-111, 118-110, 115-113 \u2014 in an eyebrow-raising margin that didn\u2019t reflect the even nature of the fight.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

One judge gave Goodman just two of 12 rounds, another awarded the Australian three while the third judge saw it 7-5 in favour of Ball.<\/p>\n

Goodman was already shaking his head upon hearing the 117-111 and 118-110 scores.<\/p>\n

Prominent Australian boxing commentator Ben Damon said: \u201cGoodman was brilliant in his first world title fight and the 118-110 and 117-111 scorecards are despicable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodman\u2019s promoter George Rose simply said: \u201cBulls***!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the judging was terrible, but we knew going in we weren\u2019t going to get any favours,\u201d the No Limit Boxing boss added later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t agree with those scorecards at all \u2014 Sammy deserved far better.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe proved he belongs on the world stage and showed he\u2019s truly world class.<\/p>\n

\u201cSammy stepped up a division for this world title fight and delivered an exceptional performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made Australia proud and showed he\u2019s ready for more big nights like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodman\u2019s effort wasn\u2019t missed by influential Saudi royal advisor Turki Alalshikh, who praised his work and indicated the Australian had earned a return invite to another of his lucrative Riyadh Season cards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Sam Goodman did fantastic in his fight with Nick Ball,\u201d Alalshikh wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe showed a lot of skill and the rounds were close. I would love to see more of him on future Riyadh Season and Ring Magazine cards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ball, England\u2019s only current male boxing world champion, improved to 23-0-1 with the win in the support to Moses Itauma and Dillian Whyte\u2019s heavyweight headline act in Riyadh.<\/p>\n

Goodman, 26, has moved up from super bantamweight \u2014 a difference of about three kilograms \u2014 chasing an unlikely, overdue title shot.<\/p>\n

After spending two years as mandatory, Goodman was scheduled to meet Japanese pound-for-pound king Naoya Inoue in a Tokyo title fight last year.<\/p>\n

A bad cut above his eye in sparring delayed it and when the cut reopened Goodman was forced to withdraw, and give up the $1 million payday.<\/p>\n

A 10-month layoff was required before he beat Cesar Vaca in May and then jumped at the chance to move up and challenge Ball.<\/p>\n

Itauma, the 20-year-old, No.1 ranked WBO heavyweight contender, destroyed veteran Whyte in a first-round knockout and had Alalshikh pushing for a clash with undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk next.<\/p>\n

– with 7NEWS<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Daniel Ricciardo reportedly hospitalised after motorbike accident<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Wallabies end 62-year drought with miraculous comeback: \u2018Blown away\u2019<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Judges\u2019 scorecards have been questioned after Sam Goodman\u2019s audacious crack at a boxing world title was shot down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-74135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74135","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=74135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}