Nick Ball successfully retained his featherweight title on October 5, when he faced Ronny Rios at M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England. Battling it out in his homecoming main event, the British champion defeated the challenger of Compton, California inside the distance.
On his way to victory, Ball put on a dominant performance dropping Rios in the third, seventh and 10th rounds. The final knockdown saw the latter falling out of the ring.
After the contender’s corner threw in the towel to save him from further punishment, referee Bob Williams called it a day. The official time was 2 minutes and 6 seconds into the 10th round
With the win by TKO, unbeaten Nick Ball improved to 21-0-1, 12 KOs and made the first successful defense of his WBA 126 lbs title. Post-fight, the unbeaten 27-year-old said he wanted to face other champions.
Ball claimed the WBA title in June by split decision against Raymond Ford. Prior to that, he challenged Rey Vargas for the WBC belt. The bout held in March ended in a split draw. The Liverpool native said the green belt belonged to him.
“There’s another three [belts] out there. So coming for them, coming for them belts,” Nick Ball said. “And that green one it will be nice to get, cause that should be mine anyway. So, hopefully get that one.”
Meanwhile, Rafael Espinoza is a WBO champion and Angelo Leo holds IBF title. In addition, Brandon Figueroa is an interim WBC champion at featherweight.
34-year-old Ronny Rios, who made his third attempt to become world champion, dropped to 34-5, 17 KOs.
In an all-English co-feature at super lightweight, Jack Rafferty (24-0, 15 KOs) stopped Henry Turner (13-1, 5 KOs) in nine rounds. With the victory by RTD, he retained his Commonwealth and WBC International “Silver” belts, and claimed a vacant British title.
Among other Ball vs Rios results, Jack Turner (9-0, 8 KOs) of England KO’d Gonzalo Corinaldesi (5-7-1, 1 KO) of Argentina in the first round at bantamweight. In an all-English bout at super welterweight, Walter Fury (2-0) scored a four-round points decision against Dale Arrowsmith (6-115-5, 1 KO).
As well, Cuban lightweight Jadier Herrera (16-0, 14 KOs) landed the vacant WBA Intercontinental title via third-round TKO against Oliver Flores (31-6-2, 20 KOs) of Nicaragua. Plus, local bantamweight Andrew Cain (13-1, 12 KOs) eliminated Colombia’s Lazaro Casseres (11-2, 4 KOs) in the second round and took the vacant WBC International “Silver” strap.
Kicking off the main card, English Joe Cooper defeated Lukasz Barabasz of Poland via 40-37 points decision at middleweight.