Sam Goodman, long associated with Naoya Inoue after twice withdrawing from scheduled dates with the Japanese phenom due to cuts suffered in training, marked his return with a 10-round points victory over the rough and ready Cesar Vaca on Wednesday. The scores were 100-90, 99-91 and 99-92 but he did not escape without picking up further facial damage.
The contest, staged by No Limit Boxing inside Sydney, Australia’s Hordern Pavilion, was designed as a showcase for the 26-year-old with a potential shot at an interim junior featherweight belt being lined up for the summer.
Vaca’s only previous loss came to Erik Robles Ayala, perhaps best known for upsetting Lee McGregor, and the 23-year-old the Mexican came with ambition and no shortage of speed in his limbs. And it was those hasty hands, as he bounced inside and out, that seemed to be troubling Goodman the most in the opening round.
The favorite was better in the second, measuring Vaca with one-twos as the Mexican zipped inside. By the third, Vaca was spending too much time on the ropes, taking blows to the body. With 30 seconds remaining, Goodman fired a four-punch combination, but Vaca closed the stanza with a sharp right.
The Australian’s jab improved in the fourth as Vaca tried to rally - only to be met with Goodman blows, upstairs and down. The pattern continued into the next but Vaca, always dangerous, scored with a left hook to close the fifth.
Vaca, warned for striking low in the sixth, regularly pressed behind a high guard but exhibited his awareness that the contest was slipping away from him when he switched to southpaw in a move that was swiftly punished.
Yet the Mexican, 19-2-1 (12 KOs), enjoyed his best round in the eighth, bulling Goodman to the mat only for the referee to call it a slip. Suddenly, Goodman looked uneasy as Vaca charged forward with those high hands and his head primed for a collision.
Goodman regained control in the ninth behind his jab and contained his aggressive foe down the stretch, but only to a degree; Vaca was warned for the use of his head, a weapon that opened two cuts of the face of Goodman.
“I tried to get out without getting cut,” Goodman said afterwards. “But that doesn’t seem to be my style this year. Fuck.”