WBA featherweight champion Nick Ball (22-0-1, 14 CO’s) had to fight hard to defeat former IBF Super Bantamweight champion TJ Doheny (26-6, 20 COs), Saturday night in the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England.
(Credit: Leigh Dawney/Queensberry Promotions)
Doheny pushes the ball to the limit
Ball Doheny was supposed to be a mismatch, but it was anything but an easy battle for Ball, 28, who took very heavy shots of 38-year-old TJ Doheny in one of his most difficult fights in his career. Whether Ball wants to admit it or not, it was a very difficult struggle for him, Doheny was smart, powerful and tough.
He was one of the guys where he was going to get his pound of flesh, no matter what, and he applied a lot of punishment to the ball in a loss attempt. Even fighters who have looked too much can harm, and that’s what we saw tonight. The promoter Frank Warren appeared to have made the right decision to choose Doheny as the opponent of Ball because it was one of his more entertaining matches.
Doheny had nothing left in the ninth and tenth rounds of the hard shots, and the fast pace the ball fought with the entire competition. His right eye was fully closed by the tithe, and he clearly couldn’t see bumps coming from that angle. Doheny still landed some nice shots around. Referee Michael Alexander stopped the competition at the end of the round. The official time was at 3:00 of round ten.
Ball is a point in the ninth round because he threw Doheny to the canvas. It was the second time in the struggle that he had pulled this great wrestling movement. In the first round, Ball Doheny kicked in the back of his legs and put him down. The referee chose not to lay a point from him, but he should have it. It was a hard kick that gave Ball Doheny and looked like something out of an MMA fight.
Cain Rands Edwards in split decision
In the co-function, Andrew Cain (14-1, 12 costs), British and Commonwealth Bantamweight Champion, former WBC flyweight champion Charlie Edwards (20-2, 7 COs) won, with a 12-round decision to win the vacant WBC Silver 118-LB.
Edwards looked like he survived rather than fighting as he moved throughout the competition, and made no effort to try to win until the last two rounds in the 11th and 12th.
The scores were 115-114, 116-12 for Cain, and 115-113 for Edwards.
Herrera’s power show: Enriquez Stop
The unbeaten lightweight contender Jadier Herrera (17-0, 15 COs) showed excellent power, if not a great defense, and Jose Macias Enriquez (21-4-2, 8 coes) stopped by a technical knockout of the seventh round.
The referee blew it off after 22-year-old Cuban talent Herrera was loaded against a defenseless Enriquez in the seventh round. At that stage of the fight, Enriquez had nothing left and hit by Herrera at will. The time of the downtime was at 2:31 of the seventh.
Last updated on 03/15/2025
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