Joe Goodall has defeated Efe Ajagba by split decision in an amateur match, has a higher knockout ratio than the hard-hitting contender and stopped an opponent in his last bout that took Ajagba the distance during his previous fight.
Ajagba recalled that he did enough to defeat Australia’s Goodall in their quarterfinal bout at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. The huge Nigerian veteran hasn’t read too much into Goodall’s sixth-round technical knockout of Stephan Shaw, either, because Ajagba believes he beat all of the confidence out of Shaw in Shaw’s prior appearance six months earlier.
Ajagba (18-1, 13 KOs) will get an opportunity to avenge his amateur loss when he meets Goodall (10-1-1, 9 KOs) in a 10-round main event ESPN+ will stream Saturday night from Tahoe Blue Event Center in Stateline, Nevada. DraftKings sportsbook lists Ajagba as a 6-1 favorite to beat Brisbane’s Goodall.
“Stephan Shaw didn’t put on his best fight, but Goodall knows how to punch,” Ajagba told BoxingScene.com. “Shaw wasn’t in the right state of mind in that fight. His mind wasn’t there since that first loss to me. His confidence was not there after that loss. He tried to fight with Goodall, but that’s not the way he’s supposed to fight. He’s supposed to box on the outside.”
St. Louis’ Shaw boxed against Ajagba, but Ajagba used his jab and occasional right hands to out-point a then-undefeated Shaw by the same score, 96-94, on each card January 14 at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York. Shaw wasn’t as competitive when he battled Goodall on July 22 at FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Australia’s Goodall (10-1-1, 9 KOs) sent Shaw to the canvas twice during the sixth round of their scheduled eight-rounder on the George Kambosos Jr.-Maxi Hughes undercard. Shaw (18-2, 13 KOs), who hadn’t been knocked down during any of his first 19 professional fights, got up from both knockdowns, but his handlers instructed referee Gary Ritter to halt the action late in the sixth round.
“[Goodall is] gonna come out with all his strength in the first round,” Ajagba said. “But I’ll be calm. I’ll be able to handle it.”
Ajagba, 29, and Goodall, 31, will headline an ESPN+ stream scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. EDT and 3 p.m. PDT. Lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (18-0, 15 KOs), of Fontana, California, and Mexico’s Diego Torres (18-0, 17 KOs) are set to square off in the 10-round co-feature.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.