Ball’s Doheny Fight: A Weak Attempt To Set Up Inoue Showdown?

Nick Ball Will defend his WBA featherweight title against the recently knocked-out non-contender TJ Doheny on March 15th at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England. It’s unclear how the WBA would allow this mismatch to occur because Doheny isn’t 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-year-old 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 old veteran Doheny in the seventh round on September 3rd.

Ball’s Rationale for the Doheny Fight

Doheny has a 5-5 record in his last ten fights since 2019. From a commonsense standpoint, it looks bad for Ball to defend his WBA 126-lb title against an older fighter who is unranked in the top 15 by any of the four sanctioning bodies and coming off a knockout loss to Inoue.

I don’t see how Ball is coming out ahead by choosing Doheny to decent his belt against rather than one of the top-rung contenders.

If the goal is to impress fans, Ball is missing the mark by selecting an older fighter coming off a knockout loss. Doheny’s selection looks weak and pathetic. The fans weren’t born yesterday. They will note Doheny’s advanced age, recent knockout loss, and poor record.

“Whatever fight I’m in, people are going to watch it because of how I come and my style. I’m sure it’ll be a good fight,” said Nick Ball to Secondsout, talking his next title defense against 38-year-old recently knocked out journeyman TJ Doheny on March 15th.

“He’s been in with Inoue, and they’re talking about me vs. Inoue. Just putting us all in together. Seeking how he got on with him [Doheny] and how I got on with him. It makes, and even bigger fight between me and Inoue, which everyone’s speaking about.

“That makes sense really. It would be nice to get it done quicker,” said Ball about wanting to knock out the veteran Doheny faster than Inoue did with his recent seventh-round KO win on September 3rd.

I’m wondering why the interviewer tossed nothing but softball questions to Nick Ball. If it had been me, I’d have been putting him under the light for his selection of Doheny rather than one of the killers at 126.

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

Better Options For Nick Ball

– Rafael Espinoza
– Angelo Leo
– Rey Vargas
– Bruce Carrington
– Otabek Kholmatov
– Edward Vazquez