Nick Ball will defend his WBA featherweight title against recently eliminated non-contender TJ Doheny on March 15 at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England. It is unclear how the WBA would allow this disagreement because Doheny is not ranked in the top 15 and is coming off a knockout loss.
Ball (21-0-1, 20 KO) thinks it’s a great idea to defend his title against the 38 years old Doheny (26-5, 20 KOs) because it helps set up a fight between him and Naoya Inoue when he moves up to 126. Inoue stopped the veteran Doheny in the seventh round on September 3rd.
Ball’s motivation for the Doheny fight
Doheny has a 5-5 record in his last ten fights since 2019. From a common point of view, it looks bad for Ball to defend his WBA 126-lb title against an older fighter who is not ranked in the top 15 by any of the four bodies sanctions and coming off a knockout loss. to Inoue.
I don’t see how Ball came out ahead by choosing Doheny to decent his belt against rather than one of the top-rung contenders.
If the goal is to impress the fans, Ball misses the mark by selecting an older fighter coming off a knockout loss. Doheny’s choice he looks weak and pathetic. Fans were not born yesterday. They will note Doheny’s advanced age, recent knockout loss, and poor record.
“Whatever fight I’m in, people are going to watch because of how I come and my style. I’m sure it’s going to be a good fight,” said Nick Ball to secondsoutTalking about his next title defense against the 38-year-old, he recently beat reporter TJ Doheny on March 15.
“He was with Inoue, and they are talking about me versus Inoue. Just put all of us together. Looking for how it is with him (Doheny) and how I got on with him. It makes, and even bigger fight between me and Inoue, that everyone is talking about.
“It really makes sense. It would be nice to do it faster,” said Ballu who wants to knock out the veteran Doheny faster than Inoue did with his recent seventh KO victory on September 3.
I wonder why the interviewer threw nothing but softball questions at Nick Ball. If it had been me, I would have they put it under the light for his choice of Doheny instead of one of the killers at 126.
It looks a lot better if Nick Ball fought a unification against WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza. This would require Ball to risk losing in a fight with Inoue if he was beaten, but at least he would be fighting a quality guy instead of a journeyman. He’s not going to impress anyone fighting Doheny. Does he think Inoue is stupid? If Ball doesn’t have the courage to fight Espinoza, Angelo Leo or Bruce Carrington, he wouldn’t rate a fight against Inoue.
Better options for Nick Ball
– Rafael Espinoza
– Angel Leo
– King Vargas
– Bruce Carrington
– Otabek Kholmatov
– Edward Vazquez
