A St George Illawarra diehard, Goodman was a handy hooker in his younger days, only taking up boxing for fitness as a teenager. <\/p>\n
Now, he stands on the edge of history as he prepares to face Japanese sensation Ryosuke Nishida for the interim IBF super-bantamweight world title.<\/p>\n
Goodman\u2019s family has deep ties to Group 7 club Albion Park Seagulls as well, with \u2018The Ghost\u2019 fighting at the team\u2019s clubrooms once, and regularly wearing the side\u2019s colours early in his career.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll be carrying all their support, and Gallen\u2019s too, as he plans on upsetting the odds and beating Nishida in front of his home fans this Sunday night. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know he\u2019s a Dragons fan, and that he\u2019s been a Dragons fan for a very long time,\u201d Gallen told Code Sports. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the end of the day, he\u2019s a rugby league fan, so I\u2019m backing him as a rugby league man. <\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s go Sammy.\u201d <\/p>\n
The pair known each other for years, having occasionally used the same Cronulla boxing gym owned by Goodman\u2019s manager and Gallen\u2019s longtime associate, \u2018Baby\u2019 Pete Mitrevski.<\/p>\n
\u201cI first came across Sammy many years ago and he\u2019s always just been an absolute beast and one of Australia\u2019s best boxers,\u201d Gallen said. <\/p>\n
\u201cTechnically, he\u2019s a brilliant boxer, and he\u2019s at that weight where it\u2019s hard because a lot of people can\u2019t even see their punches. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the thing about those smaller weights, they\u2019re so fast \u2014 they\u2019re lightning fast \u2014 that at the end of the round, people wonder what happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like the heavyweights where people can see the punches coming and see when someone gets hurt. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so technical that weight.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately he doesn\u2019t have the backing he deserves, but he\u2019s over in Tokyo this weekend, and let\u2019s hope he gets the job done and can hopefully move on to Naoya Inoue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goodman has been in Tokyo for a week and is a massive fan favourite with the boxing-mad Japanese fans.<\/p>\n
He will finally come face-to-face with Nishida for the first time at Friday\u2019s press conference. <\/p>\n
While Gallen talks about a potential fight with pound-for-pound kingpin Inoue, the reality remains unclear, with the Japanese star expected to move up to featherweight.<\/p>\n
That isn\u2019t great news for Goodman getting a fight with him, but means the \u201cinterim\u201d tag on this weekend\u2019s world title fight is meaningless. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m seeing this as a world title for me,\u201d Goodman told Code Sports. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe talk is that he moves up, but I\u2019ve heard a bunch of things. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, this is a world title.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a former world champion, and I\u2019m not fussed about hearing anything else about it. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, this is for the IBF world title. If I get that shot (at Inoue), I\u2019ll put my hand up again. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I want to stamp my name at the top of the IBF this weekend and say, \u2018either fight me, or move on\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll address that when it comes, but for now it\u2019s just win at all costs. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no interim. This is for the world title.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A St George Illawarra diehard, Goodman was a handy hooker in his younger days, only taking up boxing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[471599,471581,407430,471594,471583,471595,409399,471607,396692,471602,471598,471593,392197,471596,391203,457247,471610,376730,471586,471589,471574,471569,471606,471605,381465,443287,381022,391224,471604,447848,471613,471580,414604,76070,64,471585,63,18994,802,68077,471612,379391,471579,471577,538,39598,5588,28791,418167,172175,471578,471608,463666,428578,471611,1571,24980,471584,471570,376531,403195,381854,13409,471614,471601,2821,1861,471590,88118,55081,186999,85,471587,471575,471597,471573,471591,379738,56574,215379,376549,448141,471571,401033,471588,471609,471582,380914,388503,376757,443954,377832,377482,471603,386778,471576,264060,315971,376983,377466,409263,471600,471592,379782,471572,11804,32388],"class_list":["post-903433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-pete-mitrevski","tag-s-best-boxers","tag-s-call","tag-s-clubrooms","tag-s-colours","tag-s-dragons-fandom","tag-s-family","tag-s-longtime-associate","tag-s-manager","tag-s-press-conference","tag-s-world-title-fight","tag-a-brilliant-boxer","tag-a-bunch","tag-a-dragons-fan","tag-a-fight","tag-a-former-world-champion","tag-a-handy-hooker","tag-a-lot","tag-a-massive-fan-favourite","tag-a-potential-fight","tag-a-potentially-life-changing-bout","tag-a-rugby-league-fan","tag-a-rugby-league-man","tag-a-st-george-illawarra-diehard","tag-a-teenager","tag-a-very-long-time","tag-a-week","tag-a-world-title","tag-all-aussie-sport-fans","tag-all-costs","tag-all-their-support","tag-an-absolute-beast","tag-anything-else","tag-arms","tag-au","tag-aussie-boxing-star","tag-australia","tag-baby","tag-boxing","tag-code-sports","tag-deep-ties","tag-each-other","tag-face-to-face","tag-featherweight-that","tag-fitness","tag-friday","tag-front","tag-gallen","tag-goodman","tag-great-news","tag-group-7-club-albion-park-seagulls","tag-his-bold-world-title-challenge","tag-his-career-he","tag-his-home-fans","tag-his-younger-days","tag-history","tag-inoue","tag-inoue-question","tag-japanese-sensation-ryosuke-nishida","tag-many-years","tag-my-hand","tag-my-name","tag-naoya-inoue","tag-nishida","tag-no-interim","tag-paul-gallen","tag-people","tag-pound-for-pound-kingpin-inoue","tag-rugby-league-fans","tag-sam-goodman","tag-sammy","tag-sports","tag-that-shot","tag-that-weight","tag-the-interim-tag","tag-the-backing","tag-the-boxing-mad-japanese-fans-he","tag-the-day","tag-the-edge","tag-the-end","tag-the-first-time","tag-the-ghost","tag-the-heavyweights","tag-the-ibf","tag-the-ibf-world-title","tag-the-interim-ibf-super-bantamweight-world-title-goodman","tag-the-japanese-star","tag-the-job","tag-the-odds","tag-the-pair","tag-the-punches","tag-the-reality","tag-the-round","tag-the-same-cronulla-boxing-gym","tag-the-side","tag-the-super-bantamweight-star","tag-the-talk","tag-the-team","tag-the-thing","tag-the-top","tag-the-world-title","tag-their-punches","tag-this-sunday-night","tag-this-weekend","tag-those-smaller-weights","tag-tokyo","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903433","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=903433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}