{"id":407467,"date":"2026-02-04T14:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/407467\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:07:07","slug":"i-like-being-underestimated-nick-ball-embraces-towering-test-posed-by-figueroa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/407467\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI like being underestimated\u201d: Nick Ball embraces towering test posed by Figueroa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Ball has dedicated around 20 years to becoming a world champion, but must now work even harder to defend his WBA title and unify the featherweight division.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old is gearing up to face mandatory challenger Brandon Figueroa on February 7, headlining a Queensberry Promotions show in his home city of Liverpool.<\/p>\n

This represents Ball\u2019s fourth WBA title defence, with victories over Sam Goodman, TJ Doheny and Ronny Rios all following his crowning moment against Raymond Ford<\/a> in June 2024.<\/p>\n

Unlike previous years, when he might have been afforded the odd tick-over fight, Ball is now in a position where he must enter back-to-back assignments at world level.<\/p>\n

This, however, is the type of lifestyle that the tenacious Scouser always envisioned for himself, knowing that greater success often leads to an increased workload \u2013 and vice versa.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Boxing News and other media outlets, Ball expressed the satisfaction he gains from competing at the highest level of his sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t want it any other way. I like it the hard way, because then you\u2019ve earned it \u2013 no one can take that away from you.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew I was going to become world champion; it was just a matter of when.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I\u2019m defending it [the WBA title], and there\u2019s other belts to get in the division as well \u2013 the big unification fights; the big fights all the fans are speaking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the \u2018big unification fights\u2019 remain firmly on Ball\u2019s radar, although his next opponent is certainly not coming to make up the numbers.<\/p>\n

Their fight is aptly titled \u2018A Tall Order\u2019, with Figueroa standing at 5ft 9in and the defending champion hitting the measuring stick at around 5ft 2in \u2013 or perhaps 5ft 3in with trainers.<\/p>\n

But this, of course, is far from unfamiliar territory for Ball, who produced arguably a career-best performance against the 5ft 10in Ray Vargas in 2023.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the judges seemed to ignore much of his effective work to the body, and indeed two knockdowns, by scoring their WBC world title fight a draw<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But even so, Ball proved against Vargas that he tends to have greater success against taller opponents, such as Figueroa, whose style and body dimensions could offer ideal preparation for a potential unification clash with WBO world champion Rafael Espinoza.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it does [prepare me for Espinoza], doesn\u2019t it? As you said, they\u2019ve got similar builds. This Figueroa, he comes forward to fight \u2013 and so does Espinoza.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they\u2019ve got similarities, but every fight\u2019s different. I\u2019ve always liked fighting taller people. I like being underestimated and the underdog \u2013 it brings the best out of me \u2013 so it\u2019s no problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ball is no stranger to facing taller opponents, Espinoza happens to be a towering featherweight champion who would boast nearly a foot-long height advantage.<\/p>\n

This, therefore, could be the most appealing fight to make at 126lbs, not only due to the freakish height disparity but, also, because many would regard Ball and Espinoza as the two best fighters in their division.<\/p>\n

First up, the focus remains firmly on Figueroa this coming Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Ball has dedicated around 20 years to becoming a world champion, but must now work even harder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-407467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407467","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=407467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}