The club that built Nick Ball

It is a short walk from the dressing room to the ring at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena.

After receiving the knock on the door and being told that it is time to go, the home fighters generally walk down a corridor, turn left and are then held behind a pair of double doors.

The corridors are usually filled with shouts and encouragement but those final seconds behind the door are quiet. There is nothing left to do but wait. 

Eventually, after another signal, the doors open wide and the fighter enters the arena.

This weekend WBA featherweight champion, Nick Ball, will make that walk and just behind him, as ever, will be his trainer, Paul Stevenson.

It appears that Stevenson is the first Liverpool born trainer to train a world champion. Not only that,  but Ball lives a short walk from the arena and they get to make the first defense of their world title in front of their own people. 

Stevenson isn’t the type of trainer to get taken in by the moment and allow his attention to drift from Ronny Rios and the task at hand but he must be anticipating being hit by a wave of pride and a feeling of personal accomplishment when those doors swing open. 

“Oh, no, no, I haven’t even thought about that,” he told BoxingScene. 

“I don’t think of it like that but I know what you’re saying, and it is sort of big for me. TNT came down the other day .They asked something similar. They said, ‘What do you take out of it? You must have a lot of personal pride?’

“I said, ‘You know what, I don’t really think of it like that, but then I said ‘Somebody said to me that I might be the first Liverpool-born trainer to train a world champion.’ So that sounds like a bit of history. That’s good. 

“We’re all doing things like that. Pride? Yeah, definitely, and at walking out with Nick. Our club’s bringing championship boxing – world championship boxing –  right back to the city. We’ve done a lot of work. We haven’t been given nothing and had to fight for everything.

“So, yeah, pride for us all.” 

Stevenson will make that walk more than once on Saturday night. Five fighters from his Everton Red Triangle Gym are competing on the bill. Ball is the leader of the group but dangerous British bantamweight champion, Andrew Cain, makes his latest appearance and Brad Strand and heavyweight hope Boma Brown, will get rounds under their belts. ABA champion, Lucas Biswana, will also make an eagerly awaited debut. Apparently, Biswana is vicious. 

Stevenson has produced a tight, uncompromising group of fighters who go about their business with mean intentions. With the exception of Peter McGrail who turned professional after competing at the 2020 Olympic Games, all of them have spent a good portion of their career in the shadows and Stevenson is delighted that they are now being given the platform to show what they can do. 

“We were all in the gym this morning and the gym was buzzing.,” Stevenson said. “Me and Anthony [Hamilton, his assistant] were in the office and we sent the lads out after they’d wrapped up. They’re all on the floor, and they’re all in fight week. They’re all prowling and shadowboxing and getting ready for the session and I just said, ‘Look at that fucking group out there.’ 

“It was great to see. All of them ready. It was good.”

Ball turned up at ERT as an 18-year-old. He hadn’t boxed for three years but it quickly became apparent that he had chosen the right gym to fight professionally out of.

Over the years, he and Stevenson have perfected his style. Most people focus on Ball’s height and stocky build and immediately cast aspersions on his boxing ability but his size and aggressive style camouflage his skills. Opponents get into the ring with Ball fully aware of what he wants to do but they appear unprepared for how he goes about it. 

Ball has been effective throughout the levels. He figured out how to impose himself on the tall, experienced Rey Vargas in their WBC title fight and although Ray Ford offered a different type of challenge, Ball again found a way to force the clever southpaw to fight his kind of fight and snatched away his WBA belt.

“He’s definitely getting better and better with each fight as he’s getting that confidence. You’ll see a difference, Obviously, he’s worked 100% anyway. I wouldn’t say he’s working any harder but he just improves with every fight,” Stevenson said.

“Every fight we give him different tactics. He has different sparring and he has had excellent opposition in the last couple of years, one after another, and he’s just been learning and learning. He’s ready to be the king of that division now and dominate it and have a great reign.

“I’d say a lot of people have preconceived ideas about Nick and about what will work against him and they always get surprised. Nick is very, very clever at the inside game. Not just the strength, it’s how he’s doing it. It’s taught and then he’s great on the outside.

“Look, I’m not saying any fighter’s unbeatable – they said the Titanic was unsinkable and all that shit – but he’s got a very difficult style to box against. I think a lot of people – Vargas, Ray Ford, top world level operators – thought, ‘I’ll try this and I’ll try that’ and I think they found themselves wanting in the skill set department.”

On Saturday, Ronny Rios, 34-4 (17 KOs) will try to solve the problem. Rios is two-time world title challenger at super bantamweight although he is a whole hearted fighter, he will need to reach a level he has previously been unable to if he is to pull off a massive shock. 

“Do you know, this isn’t the first time I’ve sat opposite Ronny Rios,” Stevenson said.

“It turns out that when I was coaching for England in 2007, we go on a trip to Minnesota. Britain versus America. I’m in the corner and one of the lads on the England team was an ABA champ called Brad Evans. He messaged me the other day and says, ’Paul, I don’t know if you remember this trip. You were in my corner in America’  He said, ‘You know who we boxed? Ronnie Rios.’ He beat Brad on points, I think. So that wasn’t the first time we’ve met.

“I like coincidences. It’s like the universe telling you that everything’s good.” 

John Evans has contributed to a number of well-known publications and websites for over a decade. You can follow John on X @John_Evans79