{"id":340377,"date":"2025-12-29T04:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/340377\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T04:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:00:11","slug":"fighting-nick-ball-in-his-territory-makes-for-a-special-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/340377\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Nick Ball In His Territory Makes For A Special Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

LIVERPOOL, England – Brandon Figueroa<\/a> barely had time to catch his breath during a whistle stop tour to Liverpool, promoting his upcoming fight with WBA world featherweight champion Nick Ball<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Within three hours of his plane landing in the UK, the 28-year-old had cleared immigration and completed a press conference.<\/p>\n

The Texan has ventured across the southern border and into Mexico before but had never been to Europe and a couple of things immediately grabbed his attention. <\/p>\n

“Drivers sit on the right side and they drive on the left. That’s the first thing I noticed,” the two-division world champion told The Ring<\/a> as he took a few minutes before completing his media obligations.<\/p>\n

“Oh, and the plugs are different as well.”<\/p>\n

Travelling without a large entourage, Figueroa (26-2-1, 19 KOs) arrived quietly and took his place at the press conference dais. He and Ball engaged in a long face-off but spoke respectfully before heading their separate ways. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That relaxed attitude will be extremely useful. On February 7, The Ring’s No. 7-ranked featherweight will be back in Liverpool to fight and the welcome will be much less warm.<\/p>\n

Figueroa is a 10-year veteran of the sport and a vastly experienced professional but has never before boxed a rival in their own back yard.<\/p>\n

“Yes, this is actually his territory, literally. So yeah, it’s the first time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When I fought Luis Nery<\/a> it was at Carson, California so it wasn’t really necessarily his territory but here, it’s Nick Ball\u2019s city.<\/p>\n

“So it\u2019s a special, special night.”<\/p>\n

In February, Figueroa struggled to pin down the slick, talented Stephen Fulton<\/a> and lost his WBC featherweight title in their highly-anticipated rematch. <\/p>\n

Despite the loss, a number of avenues remained open to him.<\/p>\n

He is highly-ranked by the WBO and the IBF and only recently exited the WBC standings but – in July – he outpointed Joet Gonzalez in an WBA title eliminator<\/a> and was subsequently named as Ball’s mandatory challenger.<\/p>\n

Ball (23-0-1, 13 KOs) is much more clever and cute than many give him credit for, but the 28-year-old champion isn’t going to box and move like Fulton. <\/p>\n

The Ring’s No. 3-ranked featherweight is a naturally aggressive bundle of energy, who has imposed himself on every one of his opponents thus far. <\/p>\n

The all-action Figueroa appreciates Ball\u2019s style and attitude but believes he will get a shock when the pair inevitable meet in centre ring. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“I think my style of fighting is just very aggressive, very come forward. I hardly go back,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’m always pressuring, pushing the fight and styles make fights so we just have to see until how it plays out.<\/p>\n

“I can’t really say anything right now but I know that my style of fighting is just very awkward, very unique.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIVERPOOL, England – Brandon Figueroa barely had time to catch his breath during a whistle stop tour to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-340377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}