By Anthony Cocks
In an IBF super bantamweight title eliminator, Sam ‘The Ghost’ Goodman 22-1 (8 KOs) continued his comeback with a hard-fought 12-round points win over Rodrigo Fabian Ruiz 23-2 (17 KOs) at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia today.
The bout was the main support to Tim Tszyu versus Denis Nurja.
Goodman, ranked five by the New Jersey-based sanctioning body, and Ruiz, number 10, were battling it out for the number two position in the rankings.
The fight was a bout of two halves. Argentina’s Ruiz, 25, started well, applying pressure and showcasing his heavy hands. He was very much in the fight at the halfway point, even marking up Goodman’s face, but as he began to fatigue, the local boxer only grew stronger.
The 27-year-old Goodman from Albion Park kept sticking the jab. He attacked the body with the left hook. He landed the right hand over the top. And he kept his volume up while remaining defensively sound.
It was too much for Ruiz in the end, who had no answer for Goodman’s relentless attack.
All three judges scored the bout for Goodman, who was one fight removed from his competitive points loss to then-WBA featherweight champion Nick Ball in August last year. Judge Adam Height had it 116-112, judge Katsuhiko Nakamura saw it 115-113, while judge Ian Scott submitted a card of 118-110.
In a battle between novice heavyweights, Nelson Asofa-Solomona 2-0 (2 KOs) and Jarrod Wallace 0-1 were set to lock horns over four rounds.
You may well ask why this fight was featured so high up the card. The answer is simple: both big men are former rugby league players, and Australian promoters have long found crossover sports stars to be lucrative ticket sellers.
Both traded reckless bombs. Asofa-Solomona, who stands at 6’7″ and weighed in at 296½ pounds, was cut at the end of the first. Wallace, 6’2″ and 263½ pounds, was down twice in the third. Referee Will Soulos decided he had seen enough.
That’s about all that can be said here.
Former amateur standout Callum Peters 6-0 (6 KOs) barely raised a sweat in his middleweight eight-rounder against Delio Mouzinho 4-1 (4 KOs), stopping him in two.
The 23-year-old from Adelaide, who won the silver medal in the 160-pound division at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and represented Australia at the 2024 Summer Olympics, simply had too much class and firepower for Timor-Leste’s Mouzinho.
It didn’t take long for Peters to stamp his authority on the fight. Mouzinho, 26, came out throwing wild blows, but Peters maintained his composure and picked his shots well, dropping the import just before the bell to end the opening round.
The fight didn’t last much longer. In the second round, Peters traded with Mouzinho. He landed a crunching right hand to the jaw of Mouzinho, sending him down and halfway through the ropes.
Referee John Cauchi called off the contest without applying a count.
It was also a short night for light heavyweight Paulo Aokuso 10-0 (5 KOs), who marched through his once-beaten opponent Kittipong Jian Hao Ho 13-2-1 (12 KOs) to win via TKO in just 140 seconds. The bout was scheduled for 10 rounds.
Sydney southpaw Aokuso, 28, barely got out of first gear. He had his jab pumping from the get-go, but it soon became apparent Ho was carrying some sort of leg injury. A left from Aokuso put the 28-year-old Singaporean down for the first time, and a second knockdown soon followed.
Referee Will Soulos did the merciful thing and waved off the contest at the 2:20 mark to save the visitor from any unnecessary punishment.
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