Liverpool Calling!

It's that time again! The most explosive and entertaining fighter in this country and right up there with the best in the world, Nick Ball is back on his home patch in Liverpool on Saturday making a third defence of his WBA world featherweight title.

And, believe me, there are no easy pickings for Nick at the M&S Bank Arena, where he will come up against his mandatory challenger, former two-weight world champion Brandon Figueroa.

As a fight, this one is simply combustible, with both being elite fighters who throw a huge volume of punches. Nick’s punch output is outstanding, but Figueroa is a machine and there will be a lot of leather traded on Saturday.

Nick is known to watch very little of his opponents but he does know he won’t have to go looking for the American who calls himself ‘The Heartbreaker’. He will need to go some to break Nick’s heart because our man relishes a proper tear-up and it will be right up his street.

What it will also be is highly entertaining and I believe we could be about to witness a thriller.

This will be Nick's third world title fight in Liverpool and he has become the driving force behind putting the city firmly back on the boxing map. It is a responsibility he embraces and I know how much it means to him to provide opportunities for young Liverpool fighters to shine on the big stage.

Thanks to the exploits of Nick, plus Andrew Cain, and the work of Paul Stevenson at the Everton Red Triangle gym, we now have assembled a hugely promising crop of young talents from the region. So regular shows on the banks of the Mersey will be a fixture once again.

Paul has done a terrific job over many years, developing local fighters from scratch and bringing them through the ranks. He doesn’t recruit fighters from other gyms, he builds them himself from the amateur section of the ERT and I am personally delighted that he is now getting his just rewards for all his work and dedication.

In Andrew, he will hopefully be preparing another world champion soon enough, with the destructive bantamweight ready for final eliminator for a shot at the WBC world title taking place on Saturday. He is going up against a Mexican in Alejandro Jair Gonzalez. Andrew taking on a Mexican - what a potent cocktail that should be!

And then you can throw young Jack Turner into the mix. Super flyweight Jack has had 13 fights, won 12 of them by knockout, with eight of those coming in the first round. He doesn’t mess around this lad.

He will make a second defence of his WBA International title and I would be at all surprised if we are booking him in for a world title shot before the year is out.

So Liverpool is definitely the place to be on Saturday night and, if you can’t be there, make sure to tune on on DAZN and prepare to be entertained.