Sam Goodman won’t be fighting undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue – not in 2024, at least.

But the fighters will only have to wait a month, as their bout was postponed after Goodman suffered a cut in training, moving the fight back from December 24 to January 24.

“He picked up a cut on his eye in his last spar before flying to Tokyo,” wrote Brendan Bradford, of CODE Sports, who also posted two photos. was provided by Australian boxing broadcaster Ben Damon.

Inoue vs. Goodman was scheduled to take place on December 24 in Tokyo. Inoue holds all four major world titles at 122. Goodman, 19-0 (8 KOs), is the IBF’s mandatory contender and is also ranked first by the WBO.

This would have been the third fight of the year for Inoue, 28-0 (25 KOs). He dispatched contender Luis Nery via sixth-round technical knockout in May. A seventh-round TKO over TJ Doheny in September was thought to be a stay-busy bout, keeping Inoue active before he took on another ranked challenger in Goodman.

Although the future of the matchup was initially uncertain, BoxingScene's Lance Pugmire discovered that Inoue-Goodman was expected to be rescheduled for late January, according to an official connected to the fight. Bradford later confirmed the fight was back on "after a wild day of negotiations," with Goodman's promoter, No Limit Boxing, writing on X, "New date. Same goal. Sam Goodman will now meet Naoya Inoue on January 24 after suffering an injury in sparring."

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter and . He is the co-host of the . David’s book, “,” is available on Amazon.