A Tall Order

THE WBA WORLD featherweight champion Nick Ball will make a fourth defence of his title when he takes on the American mandatory challenger Brandon Figueroa on Saturday February 7 at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool.

Since his triumph in seizing the WBA belt from Raymond Ford in June 2024 in Riyadh, the 28-year-old Ball has registered successful defences against Ronny Rios, TJ Doheny and, most recently, Sam Goodman, to retain his unbeaten (23-0-1, 13 KOs) status as champion.

The event on February 7, live and exclusive on DAZN, will see him in world title action for a third time in his home city of Liverpool.

Figueroa, 28 and known as ‘The Heartbreaker’, hails from Weslaco in Texas and holds a professional record of 26-2-1 (19 KOs).

Figueroa already olds the distinction of being a former two-weight world champion, with him winning the WBA world super bantamweight title with victory over Damien Vazquez in 2020, then adding the WBC championship to his title tally with a stoppage of Luis Nery the following year.

He lost his belts via a majority decision to Stephen Fulton before moving up to featherweight and becoming WBC Interim world champion with a decision verdict over Mark Magsayo in 2023. A second points defeat to Fulton came in February, but Figueroa returned to the win column with victory over Joet Gonzalez in July.