‘It’s been hell’: Inside Aussie’s nightmare road to title shot .. and why you can’t write him off

Sam Goodman has so little interest in playing the underdog he went and painted his first ever pair of boxing boots black.

Just like Mike Tyson.

At the time, he was 10.

A wiry schoolboy who, next day, was due to have his first ever amateur fight.

Only problem?

“My boots were red,” he cackles.

Itauma vs Whyte & Goodman vs Ball | Sunday 17 August from 3am AEST — with Aussie Goodman expected to fight after 6am AEST | Order this PPV event now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.

Which is why that evening inside the family’s Albion Park garage, and with more than a little help from mum Roxanne, little Sammy went and painted said boots jet black.

“And why if anyone had let me,” Goodman continues, smile widening at the memory, “I would’ve cut a hole in a white towel and worn that to the ring as well …”

Which goes to the heart of everything happening this Sunday, right?

Understanding, sure, when Goodman finally makes that walk for his first ever world title fight in Saudi Arabia, he will be doing so as the $5 outsider.

That, and up a weight class.

Which matters.

Otherwise, what would be the point of them?

And all this before getting to the small matter of WBA featherweight king Nick Ball.

Aka, Mini Mike Tyson.

A moniker gifted as much for the undefeated Englishman’s bricked frame as his explosive, lunging style.

All of which makes Goodman an underdog yarn in every sense.

Problem is, he doesn’t see it.

Just as he hasn’t at any time throughout a camp where, each day, he has risen to run those quiet streets around his NSW Central Coast home.

A joint which only recently purchased, and down by the peninsula, is shared with an oversized English bulldog named Marv because … well, somehow the fighter sees a little Marvellous Marvin Hagler in him.

Back in May, it was this same hound who Goodman admitted stealing dog food for.

Remember that?

When shortly after beating Mexico’s Cesar Vaca, and with tears welling in his eyes, this hyped Aussie prospect struggled for the words to describe his previous six months.

Eventually, and with the assembled media pack leaning in, he found them.

“It’s been f***ing hell,” he said simply, explaining a spiral that had started just 10 days out from a proposed showdown with Japanese megastar Naoya Inoue.

It was here, in his final sparring session, where Goodman was seriously split.

Then after his team somehow got the headliner delayed, was opened up worse again.

Following the second split, Goodman’s Inoue fight was gone.

Same deal, that $1 million purse the fighter had already gone some way to spending.

Which was a problem.

Especially given that new home loan, it still needed paying.

And Marvellous Marvin, well, he still needed feeding.

“Reckon he’s around 40 kilos,” Goodman will say when asked about his great mate.

“But Marv, he’s lazy.

“Of a morning we’ll walk 600m for a coffee, then back, and he’s spent.”

So forget all talk of dogs resembling their master then.

Especially if you’ve watched Goodman’s preparation for Ball.

Sure, given the odds, and division switch, plenty think he’s only in Saudi to play that role of Washington Generals.

You know, help Great Britain’s sole boxing champion look good, stay undefeated and eventually welcome Inoue to the featherweight division himself, while earning a seven-figure payday.

But again, Goodman cares about none of this.

A truth proved by the way, this camp, he has charged up Terrigal Skillion on Sundays around dawn.

Or on other mornings, run those streets around home with a style that, while not exactly awkward, belies the times eventually showing up on coach Joel Keegan’s stopwatch

Put simply, Goodman doesn’t boast the athleticism required for winning 3km runs against training partners.

Yet win them, he does.

Consistently.

Itauma vs Whyte & Goodman vs Ball | Sunday 17 August from 3am AEST — with Aussie Goodman expected to fight after 6am AEST | Order this PPV event now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.

And on those same feet this 26-year-old so wonderfully uses to control distance on what is now an undefeated tear stretching 20 fights.

Moving in and out like an Olympic fencer, Goodman not only leaves rivals struggling to find him, but never truly comfortable themselves.

Again though, nobody has ever called Goodman athletically gifted.

Same as from behind cupped hands, they whisper about him possessing too little punch power to take over the world.

Yet here Goodman now sits readying to do it all anyway.

And with a confidence that comes from nothing gifted, but everything earned within an oversized West Gosford shed which, sat opposite an auto wrecker, and down from a brick joint, is itself an undeniable fight factory.

Understanding it’s here inside the Complete Boxing Gym where Goodman, long told he was no puncher, has instead gone and perfected a style heavy on skill, guile and relentlessness.

Or as Keegan describes it, “building pressure with presence”.

Get that right, coach says, “and your opponent starts to feel like they’re being undressed”.

Having worked with Goodman since age 12, Keegan and his team – which at its heartbeat also includes longtime assistant Luke Phipps and manager Pete Mitrevski — know everything their fighter is, everything he isn’t, and everything that lays waiting in Saudi.

But again, please don’t call this an underdog yarn.

Goodman has little interest in them.

A truth proved by those boots painted black.

That, and the fact he still insists an Inoue blockbuster is coming.

Indeed, in the weeks preceding what was supposed to be his Christmas Eve showdown, we asked ‘Ghost’ about being the greatest underdog to arrive in Japan since James ‘Buster’ Douglas almost 35 years earlier.

“The ‘Buster’ Douglas story, yeah, it resonates,” Goodman had told us. “But I’ve never looked at anyone as unbeatable.

“Ever.

“I’ve always thought anyone can be beat … even if people call them ‘Monster’.”

Same deal now, with Mini Mike Tyson.

Coach Keegan agrees, explaining how his charge has always had an unwavering belief.

“Coming through the amateurs, there was always a reluctance from Sam to admit anyone else had ability,” he laughs, “or a game that could trouble him.

“There were times as a coach where I’d be ‘ah, mate, we’re in some trouble here’.

“But Sam never felt that.

“He was never once worried or anxious that we’d bitten off more than we could chew.”

Of course, sometimes Keegan was proven right.

Plenty more times though, it was the fighter.

With Coach readily admitting now how without Goodman’s unwavering belief, they aren’t days out from a Riyadh season blockbuster.

All of which makes the Aussie an underdog in every place but where it matters most — within.

And why this week, no matter where the odds get wound, or what the analysts predict, Goodman will stay focused on no story but his own.

Still, and even with that Tokyo showdown gone for now, the synergy between Goodman and big Buster remains palpable.

Albeit with an asterisk or two.

For a start, Goodman’s path to victory is more likely perfection through twelve, rather than that clubbing right uppercut Douglas used to upset Tyson – and while paying Las Vegas odds of 42/1.

Elsewhere, Buster also came into the biggest fight of his life battling claims of being a quitter, and having endured the tragic passing of his mother, Lula Pearl, just 23 days earlier.

Yet Goodman’s biggest concern centres around how those splits about his left eye have healed, and exactly what chance the Englishman is of opening them again.

One of the sport’s most entertaining fighters, Ball thrives when fights turn to wars, thanks largely to a pressuring game that involves smothering opponents and throwing punches in bunches.

Boasting a powerful, lunging style, the Scouser enjoys springing forward to both close distance and land a variety of punches — including left hooks.

However, the champion’s high guard does leave his body open, while his style also makes him susceptible to counters – all of which Goodman, undeniably, has the fight IQ to take advantage of.

Same as the Aussie will look to build that pressure with presence.

A trait continually perfected since his teens.

Aware that undressing his rival, in the fight sense, is how he catapults himself up among Australia’s greatest upsets.

Think Jeff Horn shocking Manny Pacquiao, George Kambosos defeating Teofimo Lopez, even Johnny Famechon besting Jose Legra.

Jeff Harding, of course, is another who could be on the podium for his heroics against Dennis Andreis.

While other memorable moments include Kosty Tszyu’s demolition of Zab Judah, Danny Green icing Roy Jones Jnr, even Garth Wood stopping Choc Mundine.

And who could forget the late, great Lionel Rose slipping out of Australia in 1968 to take on Fighting Harada for the WBC bantamweight crown?

A fight where Rose, still only 19, and himself against a feared puncher, went and boxed close enough to perfect through 12 rounds to not only win, but return home to an estimated crowd of 250,000.

“And Lionel is a great one, of course,” Goodman says.

“You’ve also got guys like Jeff Horn, and George Kambosos.

“Internationally, Buster Douglas is the big one obviously.

“But remember that even Muhammad Ali, when he fought George Foreman, people said he was going to die.

“So for me, they’re all little cues confirming that anything really is possible”.

Yet just as quickly, Goodman reminds you this story, it belongs to nobody but him.

For the fighter himself, this isn’t about trying to conjure the spirit of Buster.

Or draw from Horn at Suncorp.

Hell, this isn’t even an underdog story.

No, all Goodman wants is to be paid for the work put in.

“Because things happen when you work hard,” he says simply. “And I have.”