Nick Ball has dedicated around 20 years to becoming a world champion, but must now work even harder to defend his WBA title and unify the featherweight division.
The 28-year-old is gearing up to face mandatory challenger Brandon Figueroa on February 7, headlining a Queensberry Promotions show in his home city of Liverpool.
This represents Ball’s fourth WBA title defence, with victories over Sam Goodman, TJ Doheny and Ronny Rios all following his crowning moment against Raymond Ford in June 2024.
Unlike previous years, when he might have been afforded the odd tick-over fight, Ball is now in a position where he must enter back-to-back assignments at world level.
This, however, is the type of lifestyle that the tenacious Scouser always envisioned for himself, knowing that greater success often leads to an increased workload – and vice versa.
Speaking with Boxing News and other media outlets, Ball expressed the satisfaction he gains from competing at the highest level of his sport.
“I wouldn’t want it any other way. I like it the hard way, because then you’ve earned it – no one can take that away from you.
“I always knew I was going to become world champion; it was just a matter of when.
“Now I’m defending it [the WBA title], and there’s other belts to get in the division as well – the big unification fights; the big fights all the fans are speaking about.”
Indeed, the ‘big unification fights’ remain firmly on Ball’s radar, although his next opponent is certainly not coming to make up the numbers.
Their fight is aptly titled ‘A Tall Order’, with Figueroa standing at 5ft 9in and the defending champion hitting the measuring stick at around 5ft 2in – or perhaps 5ft 3in with trainers.
But this, of course, is far from unfamiliar territory for Ball, who produced arguably a career-best performance against the 5ft 10in Ray Vargas in 2023.
Unfortunately, the judges seemed to ignore much of his effective work to the body, and indeed two knockdowns, by scoring their WBC world title fight a draw.
But even so, Ball proved against Vargas that he tends to have greater success against taller opponents, such as Figueroa, whose style and body dimensions could offer ideal preparation for a potential unification clash with WBO world champion Rafael Espinoza.
“Yeah, it does [prepare me for Espinoza], doesn’t it? As you said, they’ve got similar builds. This Figueroa, he comes forward to fight – and so does Espinoza.
“So they’ve got similarities, but every fight’s different. I’ve always liked fighting taller people. I like being underestimated and the underdog – it brings the best out of me – so it’s no problem.”
While Ball is no stranger to facing taller opponents, Espinoza happens to be a towering featherweight champion who would boast nearly a foot-long height advantage.
This, therefore, could be the most appealing fight to make at 126lbs, not only due to the freakish height disparity but, also, because many would regard Ball and Espinoza as the two best fighters in their division.
First up, the focus remains firmly on Figueroa this coming Saturday.
