The war with Raymond Ford can have taken something out of Nick Ball, leaving the risk-averse fighter we’ve seen in his two fights since then. Ford put Ball (22-0-1, 13 KOs) through pure torture for 12 rounds in losing a questionable 12-round split decision in June 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ball’s Post-Ford Avoidance Strategy
WBA featherweight champion Ball, 28, hasn’t fought any featherweights since his war with Ray Ford. Indeed, his next challenger, the non-puncher Sam Goodman, was chosen from the super bantamweight division for him to defend against on August sixteenth on DAZN PPV in Riyadh.
Ford’s behavior is comparable to that of a soldier in war who doesn’t need to return to the frontlines after experiencing the horror of combat. So, as an alternative of getting back on the market to fulfill the enemy, Ball is staying within the rear, protecting his hide.
Fans imagine that Ball has been avoiding the highly touted Bruce Carrington, as he’s viewed an actual threat along the identical lines as Raymond Ford. Carrington has criticized Ball’s avoidance of him, and his repeated number of non-featherweights to defend his WBA title against.
The general perception of Nick Ball by fans is that he’s purposely choosing weaker punchers from the super bantamweight division [122] to artificially extend his reign so long as possible to be sure that he’s still in possession of the WBA 126-lb champion when the superstar Naoya Inoue moves as much as featherweight. That’s a fight that is anticipated to shower Nick with hundreds of thousands, setting him up for all times as a wealthy fighter.
Milking the WBA Title Reign
It just seems so obvious to people what Ball is doing together with his milking of his WBA title by selecting the light-hitting Sam Goodman (20-0, 8 KOs), the ham-and-eggers 38-year-old Doheny, and 35-year-old Rios for his title defenses.
The Ford fight seems to have taken something out of Ball, causing him to pick his next two opponents, TJ Doheny and Ronny Rios, from the super featherweight division to defend his WBA featherweight title against. What made it look even worse is that these weren’t even the most effective from the 130-lb division. These were arguably regular run-of-the-mill fringe-level fighters that were chosen for Ball to defend his
Last Updated on 08/05/2025