Super heavyweight boxer “Big Bad” Joe Goodall has won his quarter-final bout at the AIBA world amateur boxing championships in Hamburg, Germany overnight.
Brisbane-based Goodall trains out of the Stretton boxing gym along with Jeff Horn, under the watchful eye of Glenn Rushton.
The quarter-final win means that Goodall is guaranteed at least a bronze medal, the first medal Australia will have achieved at the men’s world championships since 1991.
Goodall will also be in the hunt to make history by winning a silver or gold medal if he can win his semi-final bout against a boxer from Azerbaijan. Australia has only ever won three medals at the men’s championships – all bronze.
So far at the tournament, the 25-year-old unseeded Goodall has upset the third-seeded Ukrainian and sixth-seeded Russian boxers in his division, as well as a fighter from Egypt. He’s a talented boxer who uses his 105kg, 193cm frame to his advantage.
Goodall has been one of Australia’s leading amateurs for several years, winning numerous national titles as well as a silver medal at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. He took up boxing in 2009 after a hip injury ended his dreams of being an AFL footballer.
Goodall qualified for the Commonwealth Games after upsetting the favourite Willis Meehan at the national titles. Meehan is the son of former world-rated heavyweight Kali Meehan and has since turned pro. He is 5-0 and played briefly in the NRL with the Sydney Roosters.
Australia sent a team of eight boxers to the World Championships, but only Goodall will return with a medal – but it’s a major achievement just to qualify. Only 32 boxers are eligible for each weight division.
Australian boxers not only had to win the Australian title, they also had to win gold or silver at the Oceania Championships to qualify. The Oceania region includes 13 other countries in American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, Vanuatu and Guam.
Goodall’s semi-final will most likely to be in the very early hours of Saturday morning Australian time.
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