Nick Ball (21-0-1, 12 KOs) retained his WBA featherweight title with a tenth-round KO victory over 7-ranked Ronny Rios (34-5-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday night at the Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena. , England.
In his first defense of his WBA 126-lb title, Ball knocked the 34-year-old Rios out of the ring in the tenth round. Rios’ corner was then interrupted as he was helped back into the ring by the referee. The stoppage time was at 2:06 in the tenth.
Rios took a hit in 10
Ballo had shoved the badly tired Rios into the corner, then hit him with a nice right hand rabbit punch to the back of the head, and then unloaded with a punch bar to knock him out of the ring.
When Rios returned to the ring, it was clear that he was in no shape to continue the fight. He was hurt and tired. Immediately after the fight, Rios left the ring, which is understandable because he had taken a nasty beating.
Rios was dropped in the third and seventh rounds by Ball. The takedown in the seventh was a real push, but the referee overturned the call. It was a surprise that Rios made it out of the third round because he took a jab from Ball.
Rios took his pound of flesh in the fight, bloodied Ball’s nose in the third round, scarred his right eye, and landed plenty of hard body shots. More than once, Ballu looked hurt from the hard punches to the midsection that Rios had hit him in the contest. Rios showed that Ball has a vulnerability to taking body shots.
Rios came back in the fourth and fifth to get the best of Ball with shots to the bloody nose and shots to the midsection. Ball continued to fight hard, but was not as effective in those rounds.
Ballo fought well in the sixth, crowding Rios, landing uppercuts, several rabbit punches, and hooks to the head. He did a lot of shoving and shouldering Rios, which obviously should have been a warning. Ball is a roughhouse fighter, so rabbit punches, shoving, and other niceties are part of his tools of the trade.
It was a good performance from the 34-year-old Ronny Rios, who was brought into voluntary defense for Ball. He was chosen from place # 7, and obviously for Ballu shines, but he gave a lot of problems.
This was a tougher fight for Ball than his recent ones against Raymond Ford and Rey Vargas. Ballu didn’t take the same kind of punishment in those two fights as he did tonight against Rios, who showed he could punch. If Rios had left his hands more, Ballo would have been in trouble tonight because he was disturbed by his body, and his nose went after the third. You could tell the headshots were bothering Ball because of his nose that was bleeding badly.
Ball’s Fouling was out of hand
The referee could have done a better job of cleaning up Nick Ball’s rabbit punches, pushing and shoving tonight because it was blatant. It was constant. The rabbit shots were like rain from Ball it was obvious that the referee did not stop the action to give a warning or take points.
Ball’s expertise with illegal rabbit shots was splendid, but he should not be allowed to use this tactic throughout the contest. If Rios had gotten into the mud with Ball and started throwing similar shots, it would have been interesting to see what the referee would have done.
“He’s a tough guy, and he’s back,” Nick Ball said TNT Sports after the fight. “My nose is still going. You’re going to get a little nosebleed, but that’s what makes a champion. I bounced back.”
