Nick Ball to defend world featherweight title against experienced American in October

IN RECENT weeks it has become known that Nick Ball’s next fight would take place in his home city of Liverpool and now he appears to have an opponent.

The 27-year-old is the current WBA featherweight champion having won the title against Raymond Ford on June 1 with a performance full of vigour and determination. ESPN have reported that the first defence of Ball’s championship will come against the experienced Ronny Rios on October 5. An announcement is expected soon.

Rios had been inactive for 22 months from June 2022 when he lost to then IBF super-bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev. However, the 34-year-old returned to the ring four months ago with a fifth-round knockout win against Nicolas Polanco.

Ball will start as the overwhelming favourite to retain his title and will then hope to unify the 126lb division against one of the other champions – Rafael Espinoza (WBO), Angelo Leo (IBF) and Rey Vargas (WBC). The latter retained his own title against Ball with a split-draw in March.

The new WBA champion reflected on that lost opportunity when he spoke to Boxing News in an interview published on August 1.

“You learn little things about yourself in moments like that, how you handle them and how you go forward and how you deal with them. I always knew another chance would come,” he said.

Ball has dreams of fighting at Liverpool Football Club’s stadium Anfield in the future and welcomes a box-office attraction against Japanese star, and current undisputed super-bantamweight champion, Naoya Inoue somewhere down the line.

A product of the flourishing Everton Red Triangle gym Ball’s stable-mate and current British bantamweight champion Andrew Cain will fight on the undercard.