Can Nick Ball retain his world title in his Liverpool homecoming?

Nick “The Wrecking” Ball will step into the ring in his home city for the first time since 2020 for an emotional first defence of his title.

Ball has been a world champion since June when he beat Raymond Ford by split to decision in Saudi Arabia during the Warren vs Hearn five vs five event to take the WBA  Featherweight belt.

The Kirby fighter returns to his home city for the first time since in four years and is expected to arrive to a hero’s welcome. He’s the first Liverpool born fighter to win a world title since Tony “the Bomber” Bellew won his WBC cruiserweight belt at Goodison Park in 2016.

Ball is more than ready for the occasion as he stated in his Locked in interview. He said: “I haven’t worked this hard to let someone take it away from me.”

The challenger Ronny Rios will be looking to spoil the homecoming party with this being his third attempt at a world title belt, but his first in the featherweight class.

After previously losing to Uzbekistani fighter Murodjon Akmadaliev for the WBA and IPF super bantamweight titles in 2022 he makes the step up to featherweight to challenge for the chance to become a world champion for the first time in his 38-fight career.

Out of these two warriors the Scouser is the one to still have that zero on his record. The 27-year-old is still unbeaten with a 20-1-0 slate. The only blemish on his record came in a controversial draw against Rey Vargas where most of the boxing world believed Ball should have won the fight which would now see him the holder of two belts.

With Rios having four losses on his record to date he’ll be coming into Saturday with plenty of motivation. He could not only achieve his dream of finally becoming a world champion at the third time of asking, but he also has the chance to hand Ball his first ever defeat.