Frank Warren plays down Nick Ball facing Naoya Inoue but says ‘he could face Anthony Cacace’

Frank Warren has played down talk of Nick Ball facing Naoya Inoue but revealed he could move up to face super featherweight champion Anthony Cacace.

Ball will make the first defense of his WBA featherweight championship against two-time world title challenger Ronny Rios on October 5. Ball will fight in his home city of Liverpool for the first time since 2019, when he boxed in the Grand Central Hall in front of a couple hundred fans, and he will now fight in front of a packed-out crowd at the M&S Bank Arena.

Ball’s last two contests have been for world titles in Saudi Arabia. His first outing came against Rey Vargas, drawing with the WBC champion with many believing he was unlucky not to get the decision. Regardless, Ball was successful in his second attempt, dethroning WBA champion Raymond Ford via split decision on the Matchroom vs. Queensberry 5v5.

Ball gained a lot of fans worldwide with his two performances in the Middle East, showcasing his aggressive style to a global audience. Ball’s promoter Warren now has big plans for the growing star and was delighted to be able to bring him back to his home city.

“It’s a tremendous occasion,” Warren told BoxingScene. “I know he’s thrilled with the fact it’s a homecoming. He’s defending his title in his home city, so there’s nothing better than that in front of all his fans. You know, he’s been on a great journey. He’s showed what he’s all about. For me, he’s one of the most exciting, if not the most exciting fighter in the world.

“Now my job is to make sure that every fight that he has is a fight that’s going to move him further up the pecking order of well-known boxers in the world, to become somebody who is known everywhere. He’s more than capable of that because I can’t think of anybody over the years who fights like him, the work rate in a fight is just phenomenal.

“He’s just all action and really should be defending two belts. He got robbed over in Riyadh the first time around, bad decision by one of the judges, and the second time, obviously he came through with flying colours.”

Ball’s homecoming against Rios is seen by many as a routine defense before moving on to bigger fights later this year. One opponent that has been heavily linked with a clash against Ball is unified junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue. Warren, however, played down rumors of a fight between the pair.

“I’ll be honest with you, there’s lots of options,” said Warren. “But I’m not going into it because I’m focusing on what we’re doing now with him and let’s see him come through this. He’s well and truly on the world stage, everybody knows who Nick Ball is and that’s the most important thing.”

One potential fight Warren was happy to talk about was a domestic clash with fellow Queensberry fighter Anthony Cacace. The IBF junior lightweight champion will make his first defense of his title against Josh Warrington on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois next month, and Warren believes Ball could move up to face Cacace should they both win their scheduled bouts.

“That could happen,” said Warren. “I mean he [Cacace] ‘s got a tough fight with Josh Warrington. I fancy him against Josh, but we’ll see obviously. All these guys, there’s so many permutations now, good fights that we can make just within Queensberry. “And yeah, of course it’s one that’s on the table.”