Nick Ball has promised to deliver “another special night” when he fights veteran former champion TJ Doheny in Liverpool on Saturday.
The WBA featherweight champion, 21-0-1 (12 KOs), will be boxing in front of his hometown fans and his promoter Frank Warren promised more big things for the English city following Saturday’s show, which is largely fulled with Liverpudlian talent.
Ball and Doheny had talked plenty of smack at the press conference to announce their fight, but at Thursday’s final press conference neither gave much away.
“They always talk a big game at these press conferences, but I don’t care who he is, what he’s done, who he’s been in with, what he done in his last fight, it’s all irrelevant,” said Ball, 28. “It’s in the past. He’s fighting me on Saturday night, so I’m just focused on that.”
Asked whether he was looking to produce a better performance against Doheny than Japanese star Naoya Inoue did in 2024, Ball replied: “I’m always looking to do a better job and put a statement performance on.”
Doheny, 26-5 (20 KOs), said it was a crack at Ball’s title that incentivised him, and that he is ready to feed off the energy brought by Ball’s crowd.
“It’s straight back at the top level again, that’s the stuff that gets you going,” said the 38-year-old challenger.
“I put all that shit [the loss to Inoue with which he withdrww with a back injury] behind me. It was raw at the time. When you’re coming off an injury loss when you’ve had a shot at the undisputed championship and someone says you lost because you didn’t want it, that’s a different story. I’ve put it behind me. I’m relaxed, I’m ready to get going on Saturday night.”
Ball and Doheny had swapped heated messages after the Inoue fight, but the visitor knows that Ball – coming off strong performances against Rey Vargas, Raymond Ford and Ronnie Rios – is a solid champion.
“Everyone’s full of confidence [in Ball], he’s a good little fighter. He’s not a world champion for nothing… but I’m confident in my ability, I’ve got the camp behind me, words don’t mean anything now, it’s the action on Saturday night that’s going to be the tell-all," he said. I don’t think Nick’s overlooking me, but it’s all these numpties in the boxing media who haven’t a clue about boxing.
"They’re just all excited about Inoue [versus Ball in the future] and this and that. He’s not silly, he knows he’s got a hard night’s work in front of him on Saturday night, but when you get asked the question, you’ve got to answer it and you’ve got to answer it with confidence, and that’s the way I’m looking at it.
"Anybody knows, when you’re in there with me you’ve got a hard night’s work, overlooking or not. I’m very confident in my boxing ability. I’ve got a massive bag of tools and I think I’ve got everything to neutralize ‘The Wrecking Ball'.”