Two of the world's best featherweights will be fighting on Saturday August 16/25. People are talking a lot about Itauma vs Whyte, but not so much about this interesting and competitive matchup between two top prime boxers. Ball is BoxRec #2 and Goodman is Boxrec #3 at featherweight. I'm not sure who will win, but I think it's more likely that Ball will prevail. What is your prediction?
How is Sam Goodman considered the best Featherweight when he hasn't even fought at that weight yet? I'm interested in this fight and it might turn out to be good but I expect Ball to get the job done against Goodman.
His last fight was at featherweight. He's young and undefeated, and has grown into featherweight. Ball is rather small for featherweight himself.
I've got Ball winning by stoppage in the mid-to-late rounds. If Ford or Vargas couldn't find enough space to get enough clean work off, then Goodman isn't going to be the man to do it. It should be the main event, though. It's pretty wild that a full world title is on the line between two top 5 featherweights, and Whyte vs Itauma is the headline. Even more bizarre is that it's PPV, but the game is the game.
Even so his last opponent wasn't anyone of note at featherweight. It's just odd to consider Sam Goodman as one of the best at featherweights when you have guys like Espinoza, Fulton and Leo in the mix.
I'm not sure, but BoxRec has Espinoza as #1, Ball as #2 and Goodman as #3. Goodman is not a bad fighter. He might beat Fulton or Leo, we don't really know yet. I would sooner see Ball vs Fulton or Espinoza, but still, Ball vs Goodman is not a bad fight.
Boxrec ranking system is screwy. Having Goodman over Fulton and Leo at Featherweight makes no sense when those two are better established at the weight. Not knocking Goodman as a fighter at all and I'm looking forward to this fight but I'm just confused as to why Goodman is ranked that high as #3 at Featherweight
Yes, BoxRec rankings seem inexplicable by times. They don't have Usyk in their top ten P4P, and that's absurd.
I can see it because he's fighting one of Queensberry's best names on a Riyadh event. Ball is relentless and exciting, but he's a dirty fighter; he throws people about, he leads with the head, gets rough on the inside, and also throws the occasional kick. All of his rough tactics will go unpunished because it's a Queensberry event, but he's a brutal, genuinely world-level fighter, has a solid chin, and has the gas tank to go 100mph for 12 rounds. He's not known for his knockout power, but he has respectable power. Goodman was dropped heavily by Fuyima Fuse, a feather-fisted super bantamweight with 3 KO wins out of 16 victories, and is now operating back down at bantamweight. I don't think the omens look good for Sam here to be honest. I can see all of this grinding him down at some point, my guess is between 6 and 9. Goodman is nowhere near as good as Ford or Vargas, and even they came off second best against Ball's relentlessness. I'd be surprised if he doesn't stop him.
