As Australia gears up for summer, boxer Sam Goodman will be stepping into a furnace of a far different sort.

In mid-December, while presents are being wrapped and beach towels unfolded all around him, Goodman will be packing his bags for a Japanese winter.

There, in frozen Tokyo, a date with destiny awaits. 

Albeit, a date with a Monster.

Waiting at the Airake Arena will be undisputed super bantamweight champion and four-weight world champion Naoya Inoue, and he will be certain to bring the heat.

"There's no boxing ring in the world that's cold," Goodman tells ABC Sport.

"It's gunna be hot in there."

Goodman is in the thick of training camp, focused entirely on a fight that could make his career and turn him into a global star.

"He is one of the best pound-for-pound, but that's what excites me," Goodman says.

"The opportunity to throw my name up there and and be one of the biggest names in the sport. 

"All that excites me, that challenge, and I'm up for it. 

"So I'm not building him up into something he's not. I know he can be beaten. I know he can be hurt, anyone can, so it's something that excites me and is an opportunity that I'm ready for."

Plenty of boxers have tried to unseat Inoue.

All of them have come up short.

The four-weight world champion's "Monster" nickname comes from his uncanny punching power that has seen him win 25 of his 28 fights by knockout.

Incredibly, Inoue has knocked an opponent down in rounds more often than he has lost individual rounds in his career.

That is why Goodman is resisting the temptation to lean on the experiences of others who have entered the Monster's lair — the overwhelming majority of whom then needed assistance to leave it.

"I'm putting all the focus on on myself," Goodman says.

"I've spoken very, very briefly [to Jason Moloney], but I'm not going around asking for these former opponents on tips on how to fight. 

"He's an unbeaten fighter, so I've got to come up with my own way to win this fight and figure it out for myself a bit in there. 

"Jason gave us a a few pointers about the country itself, like, we've been to Japan, but about how they operate.

"But yeah, it's not not something I'm seeking or going out asking people for advice on how to win a fight."

Goodman too is unbeaten, a 19-fight resume with eight knockouts conducted entirely in Australian rings.

Inoue, despite being linked with other big money fights in the USA, is not overlooking the Aussie, describing him as a "well-balanced, all-around fighter" in an interview with BoxingScene this week, highlighting that "it will not be an easy fight".

But the 26-year-old rightly describes himself as widely travelled, gaining experience of different rings across the world in his amateur days and was ringside in Japan for Inoue's bout against Luis Nery.

"It is a very different atmosphere," Goodman recalls, noting that he does not take in the crowd when he is fighting.

"They're very respectful, culturally, and it's a very different fight crowd."

There, he saw Inoue claim a six-round TKO victory — the Japanese legend's eighth knock out victory in a row, a tally that now stands at nine following his demolition of Ireland's TJ Doheny in September.

Inoue battered the Mexican into submission in front of Goodman's eyes, knocking him down with lefts in the second and fifth and then, finally, a stunning right in the sixth round amidst to complete a masterfully brutal display of showboating and power punching.

But, stunningly, Inoue was also felled in that fight, caught by a wicked left hook to the chin.

It remains the only time in his career that the 31-year-old has been dropped.

"Everyone wants to build people up into something that's superhuman," Goodman says.

"Which I know it's not true. 

"I know everyone can be hurt. If I didn't think I could do this and I didn't think I could win this fight, I wouldn't have taken it. 

"So look, I'm going in with full confidence, 100 per cent confidence that I can go in there and win and become undisputed."

For some, the chance to meet a certain hall of fame fighter in the ring would be an achievement in itself.

Goodman though, has been resolute in his conviction that he's not there just to earn title bouts. 

He wants titles. All of them. As soon as possible.

"I'm not here for a chance at fighting for a world title. I'm here to be a world champion and to be undisputed world champion. 

"I've never got into this to take part or just to make up the numbers and say I fought for a few world titles and stuff like that.

"Many, many people have done that. 

"There hasn't been an Australian that has won the undisputed world title [in the four-belt era] and to be the first to do that, that's when I'll allow myself to get a bit excited and bit chuffed.

"But until then, I know there's a lot of work to do, to just put myself through day in, day out until I'm undisputed champion."