Naoya Inoue's Christmas Eve super-bantamweight world title fight against Sam Goodman in Tokyo has been postponed to 24 January, his gym announced on Saturday after the Australian cut his eye in sparring.
"We were informed today from Goodman's side that he had sustained an injury," Inoue's Ohashi Gym said in a statement.
"We decided to postpone the fight after discussing with Goodman's side the status of his recovery," it said, adding the fight would now take place on 24 January.
Goodman hurt his left eye during his final training session before jetting to Japan to face the undisputed champion, the Australian's promoter and his manager told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.
Goodman, the mandatory challenger for Inoue's WBO and IBF titles, needed four stitches and was told he could not fight for four weeks, the newspaper said.
🚨Sam Goodman explains what happen to his eye and why he pulled out of the fight against Naoya Inoue:
— COMBAT SPORTS TODAY (@CSTodayNews) December 14, 2024
“It was a freak accident, got cut and resulted in 4 stiches”
(🎥: IG/samgoodman9) pic.twitter.com/5AxGamSXLT
"He's still going to be great, but we couldn't let him fight with the cut in 10 days' time," his manager Pete Mitrevski said.
Japan's Inoue, who has a 28-0 record with 25 knockouts, beat Ireland's TJ Doheny in his most recent defence in Tokyo in September.
The fight against Goodman, who has a 19-0 record with eight KOs, was set to be his last in his homeland before an expected bout in Las Vegas next year.
Inoue was due to defend his super-bantamweight titles for the third time since becoming undisputed champion in December last year.
He is just the second man to become undisputed world champion at two different weights since the four-belt era began in 2004. American Terence Crawford was the first.