WBA featherweight champion Nick Ball (22-0-1, 14 KOs) went to war tonight with the gritty TJ Doheny (26-6, 20 KOs) to win a tenth round knockout in their highly entertaining fight on Saturday night at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England.
Ball struggled through the first seven rounds, but wore down the 38-year-old challenger Doheny with hard punches to close his right eye in the eighth. After the tenth, referee Michael Alexander chose to halt the contest. Doheny had gotten the stuffing beaten out of him in the round, and had barely made it out.
Ball got away with kicking Doheny in the first round without being penalized by the referee. Doheny was down and looked hurt from the kick. The referee did nothing. I guess that’s how you know you’re the A-side when you can kick your opponent and not be penalized.
In the chief support bout, bantamweight Andrew Cain (14-1, 12 KOs) defeated Charlie Edwards (20-2, 7 KOs) by a 12-round split decision to win the vacant WBC Silver 118-lb belt.
The judge’s 115-114, 116-12 for Cain, and 115-113 for Edwards.
“It feels good. Everybody is shouting my name and cheering for me. That’s an unbelievable feeling. I can’t even put it into words,” said Nick Ball to Fighthype after the fight. “Everything I did in the gym played out.
“My Thai boxing days came back and I gave him a little knee,” said Ball about how he kicked Doheny in the first round. I gave him a little knee to the leg because he kept holding me, as you seen in a headlock. So, he was doing a dirty move on me so I did one back. No, he didn’t do it again and he paid for it.
“I was having a bit of fun in there. I’m finished with Doheny, on with the next. He’s done well to stay in there. He’s tough. Stop him from doing what he does and me doing what I do,” said Ball about what he’ll do if he gets a fight against Naoya Inoue. “I’ll push him back. He pushes everybody else back. I won’t allow that when he’s in with me, and I’ll show it.”
