Unbeaten junior featherweight Sam Goodman was an interested spectator from his sofa in Albion Park, Australia, when he watched The Ring and undisputed 122-pound champion Naoya Inoue retain his belts when after stopping unheralded Ramon Cardenas in eight rounds.

Goodman, rated No. 4 by The Ring at junior featherweight, had been due to face Inoue in December before a cut eye curtailed those plans. The fight was postponed by a month, but the wound reopened and the opportunity slipped away.

The show went on and Inoue instead fought and dispatched Goodman's substitute Ye Yoon Kim in four rounds on Jan. 24. The Japanese superstar met Cardenas last weekend.

"He proved again he's a great fighter," Goodman (19-0, 8 knockouts) told The Ring ahead of his own return after 10 months on the sidelines, largely through injury, when he faces Cesar Vaca on May 14. "Great fighter? Yes, but can he be beat? Absolutely.

"I've got a fight and that's where my focus is. I'm not worrying about anything outside that. Once I get through this, I'll be definitely looking and trying to throw my name back in that picture."

Goodman, who is the IBF mandatory, felt the challenger started well before Inoue stamped his authority on the contest.

"I thought the first two rounds were very good for Cardenas. He was jabbing very strongly and he used his feet quite subtly and quite well early," he said. "But I think the knockdown led to him looking for the left hook too much after that.

"Inoue, to his credit, dug himself out of that hole and got back behind his own jab and started boxing smart and ended up getting that momentum back. He is who he is for a reason. It was an impressive performance, but I don't think it was something we haven't seen from him before."

While many were shocked to see Inoue, The Ring's No. 2-rated fighter pound-for-pound, knocked down, Goodman feels that can happen to anyone.

"There's chinks in everyone's armor. I don't think anyone is unbeatable, and that goes for him as well," he said. "It's more about the things leading up to that and setting up that knockdown, those little chinks, not just one shot.

"As far as building, not just him, but any fighter up as unbeatable, any man can be hurt, any man can be put down. It's all about executing, but the impressive thing was he got up and started fighting very smart after that and won the fight and that's what matters."