{"id":459929,"date":"2026-02-05T11:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T11:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459929\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T11:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T11:12:09","slug":"nick-ball-relishes-pressure-of-being-face-of-liverpool-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459929\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Ball relishes pressure of being face of Liverpool boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ring\u2019s No. 3-rated featherweight will put his WBA title on the line against No. 7 Brandon Figueroa<\/a> in the fourth defence of his title and the third to take place down the road from where he grew up.Ball<\/a>, perhaps Britain\u2019s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter and the only current British male champion to have defended his title successfully,\u00a0 has been at the heart of Queensberry Promotions\u2019 push up in Liverpool.<\/p>\n

But Saturday will be a showcase of the current depth of talent in the famous fighting city given that all five fights on the cards that will take place over eight rounds or more will feature a Scouse favourite.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good time isn\u2019t it?\u201d Ball says. \u201cWe should be proud that we\u2019re doing what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the chief support, Ball\u2019s big-punching stablemate at the famed Everton Red Triangle Andrew Cain (14-1, 12 KOs) faces Alejandro Jair Gonzalez over 12<\/a>.\u00a0Before that, Croxteth junior bantamweight Jack Turner<\/a> and bantamweight Brad Strand, another man from the Red Triangle, are both in 10 rounders. Finally, undefeated Ste Clarke (8-0, 1 KO) steps up for the first eight-rounder of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m a more experienced figure than anyone,\u201d says Ball. \u201cWe\u2019re all the same.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u2028\u201cI\u2019m just at the top at the moment aren\u2019t I? They\u2019re on their way to the top and I\u2019ve showed them it can be done, not that I needed to because they all know themselves.\u2028\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019ve showed them it can be done, someone who comes from where we come from, our gym, in my city – in our city. So it can be done. The hard work and dedication pays off. I\u2019ve given them something to look at so they can think ‘well if Nick has done it, why can\u2019t I?’<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m no different to them. They\u2019ve got dreams to become world champion just like I had. They\u2019ve seen me do it, putting on these shows on in Liverpool. Fighting in the arena in the main event, defending the world title, that\u2019s what they want to do.\u2028\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all going to keep working hard, winning the fights, looking up and saying \u2018that will be me one day\u2019 because it will be them if they keep doing what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sort of representation is no different to the examples that Ball had when he was coming through. <\/p>\n

Although he will fight in the centre of the arena on Saturday night, there were times when he was in the stands watching the city\u2019s famous Smith brothers, Paul, Liam, Stephen and Callum. Tony Bellew, the former WBC cruiserweight champion, was another example for Ball to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been loads of great fighters,\u201d Ball adds. \u201cTony Bellew is from here as well, it was fighters like that for me.\u2028\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to be around and among these great fighters in the city, looking up to them and helping each other on the way up. We\u2019re all from the same city doing what we love and that\u2019s good because these are our people.\u2028\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no place like home so it\u2019s a good feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But Ball admits his position at the vanguard of Liverpool\u2019s latest wave of talent has brought with it an element of pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, there’s definitely always pressure there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it’s good pressure, isn’t it? It’s what you do with the pressure – you can use it to your advantage and perform your best under it. I feel, if you’re a tough fighter you can handle it but some people can’t.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou pray for it your whole life for this, it’s mad. On the way up, fighting on the ticket-selling shows, selling tickets to fights in the nightclubs or sports centres.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re looking at people on these big shows in the Arena, selling them out and you\u2019re wishing you were on them, wishing that you were main event on that type of show. So now that you’ve got it, it means everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ring\u2019s No. 3-rated featherweight will put his WBA title on the line against No. 7 Brandon Figueroa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[90965,64,63,802,232239,1920,3019,85,2974],"class_list":["post-459929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-object-object","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-articles","tag-boxing-news","tag-preview","tag-sports","tag-the-ring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}