Featherweight contender Nick Ball is aiming to make the most of his second consecutive title fight in Saudi Arabia this weekend.
In March, the Liverpool slugger drew with WBC champion Rey Vargas, flooring the Mexican in the eighth and 11th rounds in a fight many felt the Englishman won.
Now, Ball fights WBA ruler Raymond Ford, who is making the first defense of the title he won in dramatic fashion against Otabek Kholmatov in upstate New York the week before Ball faced Vargas.
Ball is 27 years old and 19-0-1 (11 KOs), but says he has not looked at Ford much in the build-up, although he expects the American to be the best he has met to date.
“I treat every fighter I’m going to be fighting as the best I’ve ever faced,” he said. “That’s what brings the best out of me. He’s the next one in line, so he is the best I’m gonna face. That’s the way you could look at it. On paper, it might not be the case, but that’s the way I like to do it.”
What does he think of the champion, who rallied sensationally to win the crown with seven seconds left on the clock?
“I don’t really know,” Ball replied. “I don’t really care. I just focus on myself and be the best version I can be and I can beat them all.”
Ball admits he was downbeat following the Vargas result, but he knows the experience could stand him in good stead, and that it now remains firmly in the past as he looks toward Saturday at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
“Everyone watching knew what happened, it was a terrible decision, but you can’t change it, so leave it where it is. It’s in the past,” Ball said.
“The way I’m feeling, I feel like I’m going to do something different but you don’t know until you get in there. I’d be lying to you saying I’m gonna do this, do that, I don’t really know until I get in there, but the way I’m feeling I feel like something else is going to come out of me on Saturday night.”
Speaking to BoxingScene on Monday, Ball was focused and was asked about who were the people who motivated him in boxing. Initially, he said it was those he saw regularly, then he looked at his home city, and then to an iconic fighter he very much moulds himself on, even if that fighter is a heavyweight.
“All the fighters around me, all the fighters I’m in the gym with day in and day out, we’re training together every day,” Ball added. “There’s loads. I like [featherweight] Paul ‘Hoko’ Hodkinson from Liverpool, I feel like he was a very underrated fighter. There’s loads of fighters out there, past and present, to watch and things like that but I like the ones with a similar style to me, exciting styles and the ones that come to fight.”
Mike Tyson is an inspiration to him.
“I’ve watched loads of him to be honest,” Ball continued. “I still do to this day. That’s what people have been saying, we’ve got similarities. I like the way he fights.
“All his fights are exciting no matter who he’s in the ring with. He’d treat them all the same and goes into every fight the same. It’s no messing. That’s what I like about him. No messing. No wasting time. Straight to business.”
Tyson meets Jake Paul on July 20 in Texas, Ball grins when he says of Paul: “He’ll be knocked out cold. He’s doing my head in.”
Ball understands the threat posed by fighters of Ford’s level. The challenger will have to work his way in to close the gap, let his hard shots go to the body and head and if he can’t stop Ford hope that at least his style leaves an impression on the judges this time. Then he can look to tick off any future goals he might have, but the first one is to be able to lift Ford’s belt above his head and call it his own.
“The main one is becoming world champion,” Ball went on. “I should be world champion right now, speaking to you, but that weren’t the case. I’ve got another chance Saturday night so I won’t be letting that slip. So I’ll become world champion and then become undisputed champion. Everyone wants to do that. Everyone wants all the belts; and just take care of my family, look after everyone around me and be remembered as one of the best fighters.”
There is no malice. Just a cool professionalism. Ford and Ball have shared mutual respect in the build-up. It’s just business.
“I always keep it that way with my opponents,” Ball said. “Always respectful until it’s time to get in the ring, and then it goes out the window.”
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