Ball’s fight with Doheny: a weak attempt to set up the Inoue showdown?

Nick Ball will defend his WBA featherweight title against recently knocked out non-contender TJ Doheny on March 15 at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England. It’s unclear how the WBA would allow this mismatch to occur because Doheny is not ranked in the top 15 and is coming off a knockout loss.

Ball (21-0-1, 20 KOs) thinks it’s a great idea to defend his title against the 38 years Doheny (26-5, 20 KOs) because it helps set up a fight between him and Naoya Inoue when he moves up to 126. Inoue stopped the veteran Doheny in the seventh round on September 3.

Ball’s rationale for the fight with Doheny

Doheny has a 5-5 registration in his last ten fights since 2019. From a common sense standpoint, it looks bad for Ball to defend his WBA 126-pound title against an older fighter who is not ranked in the top 15 by any of the four sanctioning bodies. and that comes from a defeat by knockout. to Inoue.

I don’t see how Ball will get ahead by choosing Doheny to win his belt over one of the top-tier contenders.

If the goal is to impress fans, Ball is failing by drafting an older fighter coming off a knockout loss. Doheny’s selection seems weak and pathetic. The hobby was not born yesterday. They will note Doheny’s advanced age, his recent knockout loss and his poor record.

“Whatever fight I’m in, people will see it because of how I come and my style. I’m sure it will be a good fight,” Nick Ball told Exit secondstalking about his upcoming title defense against recently knocked out journeyman TJ Doheny, 38, on March 15.

“He’s been with Inoue and they’re talking about me against Inoue. Just bringing us all together. Looking for how he got along with him (Doheny) and how I got along with him. An even bigger fight ensues between Inoue and me, which everyone talks about.

“That really makes sense. It would be nice to do it faster,” Ball said of wanting to knock out veteran Doheny faster than Inoue did with his recent seventh-round KO victory on Sept. 3.

I wonder why the interviewer didn’t throw anything but softball questions at Nick Ball. If it had been me, I would have They’ve been putting it in the light. for his selection of Doheny instead of one of the killers in 126.

It would look much better if Nick Ball fought a unification against WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza. That would require Ball to risk losing a fight to Inoue if he were defeated, but at least he’d be fighting a quality guy instead of a journeyman. He’s not going to impress anyone if he fights Doheny. Does he think Inoue is stupid? If Ball lacks the courage to fight Espinoza, Angelo Leo or Bruce Carrington, he doesn’t qualify to fight Inoue.

Best options for Nick Ball

– Rafael Espinoza
– Angel Leo
– King Vargas
–Bruce Carrington
– Otabek Jolamatov
– Eduardo Vazquez