Naoya Inoue probably won’t be fighting on Christmas Eve after all.

Australian Sam Goodman was scheduled to challenge Japanese superstar Inoue for the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 122-pound titles in Tokyo on December 24, but he was injured in a boxing match on Friday , was forced to withdraw from that night’s title fight after 12 rounds. Goodman suffered a cut above his left eyelid during his final sparring session before flying from Australia to Japan on Sunday.

News of Goodman’s axing was first reported on social media by Australian broadcast journalist Ben Damon on Friday night.

Boxing News confirmed that Goodman’s agent has pushed for the entire event to be postponed to January 24 to accommodate the IBF and WBO No. 1 junior featherweight contender.

Inoue’s representatives have considered replacing Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs) with Japanese fighter Toshiki Shitamachi (19-1-3, 12 KOs), who is scheduled to fight another Japanese boxer Misaki Hirano (11-1 , 4 KOs) in a 10-round matchup on the December 24th undercard.

Seamus March is ranked No. 5 by IBF, No. 8 by WBC, and No. 11 by WBA in the 122-pound division. The WBO ranks Simomachi as the seventh contender at featherweight (126 pounds).

The card at Ariake Arena that was supposed to star Inoue-Goodman was sold out, which was a big factor in Inoue’s agent not wanting to postpone the event.

Perhaps more problematic, however, is that Shitamachi is a 5-foot-10.5 southpaw, while Goodman is 5-foot-6.5 and fights as a right-hander. Changing the strategy to the southpaw, who didn’t gain much, if anything, against southpaw fighters, apparently encouraged Inoue’s coaches late in training camp to have him fight Goodman a month later.

However, a one-month delay could disrupt Inoue’s 2025 plans.

If Inoue defeats Goodman on December 24, he plans to return to action on April 12 in Las Vegas. His possible opponent for that fight is the Mexican Allan Picasso (30 wins, 0 draws, 1 loss, 16 KOs), who must first defeat the Colombian Yeshison Cuelo (13 -2-1, 11 KOs) continues to remain the WBC’s No. 1 challenger, one of whom Inoue has won four times. If Inoue is to successfully fight back-to-back fights against Goodman and Picasso, he hopes to fight WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani (29-0, 22 KOs) at the Tokyo Dome, which would be the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history Late summer or early fall next year. Nakatani needs one more win, perhaps in his 122-pound debut, to secure his spot against Inoue.