Nick Ball will yet again be looking up when he squares off against Brandon Figueroa this Saturday in Liverpool, England.
The 5’2” WBA featherweight champion will give up seven inches to his challenger, but this is something all too familiar to Ball. The Liverpudlian is one of the smallest featherweight champions in history but has a knack for looking down on his foes even if he starts every bout looking up.
A visit to the Everton Red Triangle gym, where Ball has learned his craft, tells much of the story. While watching him wreaking havoc on the heavy bags hanging from the ceiling you would also notice that he is always punching up. Dents sit high on the leather, a physical reminder of years spent attacking targets well above his natural reach, ever since he walked through the doors at the start of his professional career nearly a decade ago.
“I don't mind punching up. I've been punching up my whole life,” said Ball of his most recent tall foe. “So punching down, maybe it could be more draining, but I understand [Figueroa is] good at fighting people who are small as well and things like that. But I'm going to show him I'm not like any of them people. I'm stronger than what I look. So we'll just have to wait and see, but it's going to be an exciting one.”
Despite Ball’s impressive run since his controversial draw with the 5’10” Rey Vargas, where many thought Ball had done enough to claim the WBC featherweight title, there remain those who underestimate the Englishman purely because of his size.
“It shocks a lot of people and gets people behind you, thinking, ‘Oh, he's small, he can't do this, he can't do that,’ and then when you show them that you can, it's a shock to them,” Ball said. “They’re like, ‘Wow, he's only 5’2” and he's doing things like that,’ and you get underestimated and overlooked. But once you show them, it's a good feeling.
“When you're small, people could make fun of you, couldn't they? Make fun of you, think you can't do things like I said before, and just overlook you, underestimate you, underestimate your strength. So it gives you that extra grit to prove them wrong, and show them, and embarrass them.”
The jokes and jeers about his size is something Ball had to deal with when he was a child growing up in Kirkby, Liverpool, but the experiences have clearly helped shape the fighter he is today.
“It's good and bad, however you take it at the time, you've got to use it to your advantage, like fuel to the fire,” Ball said. “So when someone says you can't do something, don't respond with words, just respond with actions and show them that you can do it, and then leave them with nothing to say. Embarrass them.”
Ball still believes that, even now, as a world champion, he is being underestimated by fellow titleholders at 126lbs and challengers circling his WBA belt.
“Even with the fighters probably who watch me, they probably think, ‘Oh yeah, I can handle that, I can handle that outside looking in,’ but then when they get in there with me, and they feel it, and it's on them, and they can't do nothing about it, then they'll know.”
That sense of being overlooked is nothing new for Ball. It is a feeling that has followed him from gyms and schoolyards to world title fights, and one that has quietly shaped both his mentality and his approach to the sport. Rather than resenting it, Ball has learned to draw strength from it, using doubt as fuel while keeping his focus fixed firmly on what still lies ahead.
“Yeah, I'm definitely proud of myself, how far I've come, but I know there's more to get,” said Ball. “As a kid, you set yourself these goals, don't you? And then when you achieve them, you set yourself new ones, but there's always something more. I always knew I was going to become world champion, it was just a matter of when and getting the opportunities. Frank Warren's done that. Frank has got me the opportunities, and now I've done it, and now I'm defending it, and then there's other belts to get as well in the division.
“So, the big unification fights, the big fights all the fans are speaking about that they want me to be involved in. So, there's more things to come and more things to get. So, yeah, proud of myself, but also knowing that this is not the end and this is basically just the start.”
Tom Ivers is a lifelong fight fan and former amateur boxer who has a master’s degree in sports journalism. He had his first bout in 2013 and spent the majority of his career at the Salisbury Amateur Boxing Club in Liverpool, England, where he won two regional titles. Tom joined BoxingScene in 2024 and is now a key part of the UK and social media teams. You can reach him @tomosivers on X and Instagram.
