Pushing the envelope is kind of Nick Ball’s thing. Since being saddled with a split draw in his challenge of featherweight titleholder Rey Vargas in March 2024, Ball immediately turned around to win a different belt and has now fought a total of four times, with no filler – no cupcakes – in between.
On Saturday, it was more gristle and bone, as Ball went after Australia’s Sam Goodman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in a featherweight 12-rounder. For his trouble, Ball walked away – maybe just a tad wobbly – with his third title defense in a tight unanimous decision over the previously unbeaten Goodman.
The co-feature was a tasty appetizer ahead of the Moses Itauma-Dillian Whyte headliner, and Goodman, a 26-year-old from Albion Park, New South Wales, Australia, was a bite nearly too big to chew for Ball, a 28-year-old from Liverpool, UK.
The action was brisk from the start, Goodman pumping his jab and expertly changing levels while Ball mixed in lead left hooks with right-hand power and a handful of combinations. It picked up in the second when Ball missed with a lead left hook and Goodman countered with a whipping left hand of his own that thunked Ball’s jaw and swiveled his head. Ball fought back, briefly – and seemingly almost unknowingly – switching to southpaw before reverting back and trying to calculate a route around Goodman’s long jab.
Both fighters showed their class – and their quickness afoot – in the third, putting together mixed combinations and often slipping those of the other. But then Goodman backed up Ball with a short right-hand counter and a left hand to the body, prompting an immediate answer – a blind, winging right hand that knocked Goodman’s gumshield from his mouth. Goodman kept jabbing away, and after a brief pause to collect his mouthpiece, he took a hammering overhand right from Ball, mostly to the neck, that just missed its mark. Ball kept dutifully on the stick, setting up body shots and taking just a little gusto from the aggressive Ball.
Ball, whose right eye was beginning to show wear by the fourth, was now lunging for shots. Goodman lashed him with several beautiful counters, but Ball was occasionally getting through. Ball went to his own jab, doubling up on the left hand with an uppercut behind one of them. With Goodman bearing down, Ball fought off the ropes to back him up. A sparkling exchange at the bell ended the fourth. It was shaping up as a difficult-to-score, neck-and-neck fight that could easily have been 4-0 in favor of either fighter, depending on what you like.
But in the fifth, a crouching Ball burrowed his way into range, strafing Goodman with a right to the body, missing with a left uppercut but immediately following with an overhand right that found a home on his opponent’s chin. Goodman took it, but Ball caught him with a left hook while he was backing out. The Australian, though unhurt, was rattled – and he attempted to clinch, which Ball slipped and used as a chance to pour on more. Goodman suddenly went quiet, not even pumping his jab, though Ball may have punched himself out a bit as both men were more judicious with their offense through the round.
This much was clear, though: Ball was done respecting Goodman’s power. He was routinely fighting within range now, and early in the sixth, after a three-punch Goodman combination, Ball even dropped his hands and smiled. He was charging forward – not always effectively – but overtly demonstrating that he was the aggressor. A left uppercut-right cross-left hook combination that momentarily staggered Goodman offered more proof.
A mouse appeared under the right eye of Goodman in the later rounds, but he was by no means wilting. He continued to work his jab, move his feet, look for opportunities to land his power and target Ball’s reddening eye. A picture-book left hook landed cleanly on Ball’s jaw in the ninth to affirm Goodman’s presence.
Ball was no longer lunging, but neither was Goodman backing up. More often, they stood at range, trading shots and combinations, slipping, parrying, allowing punches to glance off, occasionally chewing leather. Goodman’s jabs may have been coming more frequently, but Ball made up for any rate deficit with bigger, bolder shots. It was excellent stuff – a shimmering reminder of why boxing’s top little guys mustn’t be missed.
What set the fighters apart – if anything, in a brilliant, nearly dead-level battle – was the power. Specifically, Ball’s. Blazing uppercuts, left hooks, straight rights – many upstairs, but some catching Goodman off guard to the body – seemed to give Ball an edge over the final rounds. Goodman stepped lively and looked great when throwing the jab and following it up. Ball’s eye was roughed up, but he had never been hurt, and he blistered Goodman with the more powerful, eye-catching shots over the course of 12 rounds.
Goodman, 20-1 (8 KOs), is sure to do more big business at or near the top of the 126lbs weight class. He’s a good one, and he’ll learn from this loss.
Meanwhile, Ball, 23-0-1 (13 KOs), continues his march through the division’s contenders. Will he next meet another titleholder? He says he wants it. Whether he’ll get it is something else entirely. If it comes, heaven knows he’ll meet the challenge head-on.
Earlier on the undercard, Japan’s Hayato Tsutsumi stopped Qais Ashfaq in the third round of their scheduled 10-rounder.
Tsutsumi, a 26-year-old junior lightweight fighting out of Tokyo, was sharp, targeting the body from the start and forcing Ashfaq to pick his poison. The toll was showing as early as the end of the second round, when Tsutsumi dropped Ashfaq with a combination in the corner.
Ashfaq, a 32-year-old southpaw from Leeds, Yorkshire, UK, simply wasn’t prepared to stand up to Tsutsumi’s speed, accuracy and power. Tsutsumi scored a total of four knockdowns, dropping Ashfaq three times in the third alone – on a three-punch combination ending in a right cross, on a left hook with Ashfaq against the ropes and finally in a swarm of punches that prompted referee Leszek Jankowiak to end things then and there.
Tsutsumi advanced to 8-0 (5 KOs) with the win, while Ashfaq fell to 13-4-1 (5 KOs).
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Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
