Nick Ball belongs to an ancient and forgotten boxing time and place. On Saturday, Ball defends his WBA featherweight title for the second time, in what will be his fourth world-title fight in just 372 days. No champion is that active in the modern game.
In modern boxing , where the champions are understandably risk averse, it is rare for a fighter to have more than two world title fights in one year. Ball has broken that chain in style. The Merseyside boxer meets TJ Doheny in Liverpool at the M&S Bank Arena; he defended his title in the same venue last October, won the title in Riyadh in June, and fought a controversial draw for the WBC featherweight title last March – also in Riyadh.
He might have had another world title fight, but he also had a hernia operation during the year. A quick glance at the records of recent British world champions reveals the favoured and sensible tendency of just two fights or less each calendar year. Ball’s activity is refreshing and there is no shortage of future dance partners in a potential series of super-fights.
First, it’s Doheny, and the Irish-born Australian will deliver all the dangers of a man who knows this is his last chance at the end of a good career; it might sound callous, and that is because it is the cold truth in an unforgiving business. Doheny is now 38, he won the IBF super-bantamweight title in 2018, and last September in Tokyo, he suffered an injury against Naoya Inoue in the seventh round of a bold bid for the undis.