NICK BALL’S next world title defence has been announced.
The WBA featherweight champion faces Ireland’s TJ Doheny at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool on March 15.
Ball, 21-0-1 (12 KOs), won the title on June 1 beating Raymond Ford in Riyadh to ease the pain of his first world title shot three months earlier. That night Ball was denied by the judges’ scorecards in a split draw against WBC title holder Rey Vargas.
After back to back fights in Riyadh Ball returned home to Liverpool in October where he proved too powerful for a game Ronny Rios who was stopped in the 10th round.
Doheny, 26-5 (20 KOs), will go into his 32nd fight as the underdog but the Portlaois southpaw is used to upsetting the odds as he proved in August 2018 beating Ryosuke Iwasa to claim the IBF super bantamweight title in Japan. A successful maiden defence against Ryohei Takahashi followed before the Aussie resident lost in a unification bout against Daniel Roman in New York.
The big fight experience has continued for Doheny over the years in defeats to Michael Conlan and Sam Goodman, respectively. Doheny bounced back, however, to rack up three wins in Japan to bolster his world title credentials which earned him another championship shot in September this year. In the opposite corner, however, was pound-for-pound ‘Monster’ Naoya Inoue. The Japanese phenom made it 28-0 (25 KOs) when Doheny’s brave effort was halted in round seven.
In the chief support slot on March 1 Ball’s gym-mate Andrew Cain, 13-1 (12 KOs), gets his biggest test to date against current European bantamweight champion Charlie Edwards, 20-1 (7 KOs). However, the EBU belt will not be on the line.
Edwards, now trained by Liverpool’s Stephen Smith, won the EBU title by out-pointing Thomas Essomba in September. The former WBC flyweight titlist still carries aspirations of becoming a two-weight world champion but will have his hands full with the dangerous Cain.
The 28-year-old has won a hat-trick of fights in six months since suffering his first loss to regular thorn in the side Ionut Baluta. In between victories over Darwing Martinez and Lazaro Casseres there was British title success for Cain who stopped Ashley Lane in menacing fashion in July. Cain will defend his British and Commonwealth titles against Edwards.
The undercard sees Baluta, 16-5-1 (3 KOs), returns to UK shores once again to take on Brad Strand, 12-1 (4 KOs). Cuban super featherweight talent Jadier Herrera, 16-0 (14 KOs), and super-flyweight prospect Jack Turner, 10-0 (9 KOs), will also feature.
