Nick Ball will defend his world featherweight title against the experienced American in October

A few weeks ago it became known that Nick Ball’s next fight will be held in his hometown of Liverpool and now he seems to have an opponent.

The 27-year-old is the current WBA featherweight champion who has won the title against Raymond Ford on June 1 playing with energy and determination. ESPN reported that Ball’s first championship defense will be against veteran Ronny Rios on October 5. An announcement is expected soon.

Rios had been out of action for 22 months since June 2022 when he lost to former IBF super-bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev. However, the 34-year-old returned to the ring four months ago with a fifth round victory against Nicolas Polanco.

Ball will start as the favorite to retain his title and hopes to unify the 126lb division against one of the champions – Rafael Espinoza (WBO), Angelo Leo (IBF) and Rey Vargas (WBC). He ended up winning his own title against Bhola by splitting in March.

The new WBA champion reflected on that lost opportunity when he spoke to him Debate News in an interview published on August 1.

“You learn little things about yourself in moments like that, how you handle them and how you move forward and how you deal with them. I knew that another opportunity would arise,” he said.

Ball has dreams of fighting at Liverpool Football Club’s Anfield stadium in the future and welcomes the prospect of a fight with Japanese superstar, and current super-bantamweight champion, Naoya Inoue somewhere down the line.

A product of Everton’s thriving Red Triangle gym, Ball’s stablemate and current British bantamweight champion Andrew Cain will fight on the undercard.