Goodman was crowned Australian bantamweight champion at the National Boxing Titles earlier this month, his first senior crown, to go with swag of junior honours – including a bronze medal at last year’s AIBA world championships.

The 18-year-old Albion Park product managed comfortable wins in his three bouts to claim the gold, providing an emphatic answer to questions surrounding the step up to the senior ranks.

“It was good to prove to people that I don’t have any problem with it,” Goodman said.

“There is a difference between winning a men’s title compared to a junior title. It solidified my place as the best bantamweight in Australia and I was really happy to do that.”

It saw Goodman invited by Boxing Australia to participate in next month’s training camp with the elite national team at the training base that has housed the likes of  Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones Junior and Andre Ward en route to their respective Olympic medals.

The camp will be the ideal preparation for the Oceania Confederation Boxing Championships in June, where he’ll start as gold medal favourite, as Goodman sets his sights on the world championships in Hamburg Germany in August.

“Winning the national qualifies me for Oceania and I’ve also been invited to America for a high-performance training camp so I’ll be training with the men’s Olympic team.

“I definitely want to medal in Germany. To do that I’ve got win Oceania’s so I want a gold medal there and then I’ll be chasing the gold medal in Germany.

“It’s a big ask, particularly in my first year as a senior, but definitely no less than a medal is my goal and hopefully it can be a gold one.”

Goodman is spearheading an amateur boxing scene in the Illawarra as strong as it’s been in recent memory according to renowned trainer Vito Gaudiosi.

Gaudiosi’s pupils Brock Harris (silver) and Athena Kinnas (bronze), medaled at the same national titles while Illawarra pair Zeke (bronze) and Tywarna Campbell (silver), who train with father and seasoned pro Adrian Campbell, also picked up medals.

“The Illawarra fighters are going really well in the amateurs, probably the best I’ve seen it for a long while,” Gaudiosi said.

“Brock fought three fights going into the final. The first one was a tough fight, the second one was extremely tough and in the third one he fought Cohen Adams who’s one of the best kids in Australia and one of our youth world champions.

“It was a very close fight, it could have gone either way, so it was very impressive for Brock’s first time at the national titles.

“Athena jumped in first-up with the eventual silver-medalist and came off second best in a close fight but she performed really well to finish third.”