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 will allow this mismatch to occur as Doheny is not ranked in the top 15 and is coming off a knockout loss.
Ball (21-0-1, 20 KOs) thinks it’s a good idea to put his title on the line against the 38 year old Doheny (26-5, 20 KOs) as it helps set up a fight between him and Naoya Inoue when he moves up to 126. Inoue stopped veteran Doheny in the seventh round on Sept. 3.
Ball’s rationale for the Doheny fight
Doheny has a 5-5 record in his last ten fights since 2019. From a common sense standpoint, it looks bad for Ball to defend his WBA 126-pound title against an older fighter not ranked in the top 15 by any of the four sanctioning bodies and comes with a knockout loss. to Inoue.
I don’t see Ball getting ahead by picking Doheny to get his belt decently against rather than one of the top contenders.
If the goal is to impress fans, Ball misses the point by picking an older fighter coming off a knockout loss. Doheny’s choice looks weak and pathetic. The 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 it because of how I come and my style. I’m sure it will be a good fight,” said Nick Ball Second saltand talks about his next title defense against the 38-year-old who recently knocked out journeyman TJ Doheny on March 15.
“He was in with Inoue, and they were talking about me vs. Inoue. Just to bring us all together. Looking for how he got along with him (Doheny) and how I got along with him. It makes, and even bigger fight between me and Inoue, which everyone is talking about.
“It really makes sense. It would be nice to get it faster,” Ball said of wanting to knock out veteran Doheny faster than Inoue did with his recent seventh-round KO victory on Sept. 3.
I wonder why the interviewer threw nothing but softball questions at Nick Ball. If it were me, I would put him under the light for his choice of Doheny rather than one of the murderers on 126.
It would look much better if Nick Ball had a unification fight against WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza. It would require Ball to risk losing in a fight with Inoue if he gets beat, but at least he’ll 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 guts to fight the likes of Espinoza, Angelo Leo or Bruce Carrington, he doesn’t rate a fight against Inoue.
Better options for Nick Ball
– Rafael Espinoza
– Angelo Leo
– King Vargas
– Bruce Carrington
– Otabek Kholmatov
– Edward Vazquez
