Nick Ball vs. Brandon Lee Figueroa & Andrew Cain vs. Alejandro Jair González Díaz RBR.

Turned Ball in to Inoue

 

The big problem is that people don't understand the Scouse mentality. Because of geography it's always looked away from England and for fifty years it's been treated badly - from stereotypes about thieving, through industrial decline and the cover-up of 97 dead. That's created a siege mentality and in turn Scousers get lumped together as one mass. Some idiot throws a missile in Manchester or Birmingham and it's some idiot threw a missile. The same thing happens in Liverpool and they're all the same.

 

Ball busted!

 

Is Ball vs Figueroa FotY for 2026, so far?

 

Was he the aggressive team member of ball who went over to the figueroa team after the ko?
If so, yes

 

The way Inoue dealt with Fulton makes me think he would go through 126 with ease. Can't see anyone giving him a tough night.

 

Terrific fight. Was so sure that Ball would be the one to win rather easily but Figueroa proved me wrong with that performance. I had Figueroa ahead before the stoppage and he made sure that he won emphatically. Great to see him become champion again. Just a shame that the opposing team had to be behave so unsportsmanlike just because they lost. Despite the loss I think Ball will be back, just needs to start tightening up his defense.

 

Dunno if it's a lock for FOTY so far, as Smith vs Matias was excellent. But it was a whole lot of fun, and definitely on my short list of FOTY contenders; had Fig up by one but he ultimately rendered the scorecards academic with that switch up left hook counter. Pretty sweet. Nice to see him work the jab and improve his slipping game. He was making Ball miss in the last three sessions and that's eventually what led to the KO.

 

Ball being 5'2 will always be a problem for him at 126.

 

Can't even imagine how that would have looked had he fought Rafael Espinoza who is 6'1.

 

I still hope we get it. Top Rank is desperate to keep their guys active and Ball would gladly take a title fight asap. And its still a damn good fight.

On a side note, I just realized that Ball hit the canvas face first, laid there motionless and still got a count. But god forbid a B side gets even slightly rocked in Britain because the ref will be forced to wave off the fight.
To Steve Gray´s credit, he is one of the better referees and I cant really recall him to be quick on the trigger. He usually lets the fights play out as much as it makes sense to let them do so. But this only highlights the inconsistency in British refereeing.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing Ball against Espinoza but I do feel that fight would only favor Espinoza due to his significant size advantage that would make it very hard for Ball to overcome. A tall slender fighter like Figueroa already gave him fits and ended up knocking him out and Espinoza is someone who is taller and more powerful than Figueroa.

I was actually surprised that the ref stopped the fight after the second knockdown. I think if that was Figueroa that hit the canvas after the first knockdown the fight would have been over.

 

126 won't be an easy task for him but it's achievable. I think Figueroa and Espinoza can give Inoue a very hard fight.

 

I just feel like, given how Inoue completely outboxed and then flatlined Fulton, who went on to pretty easily outbox Figueroa, that Fig would be easy work. Triangle theories can be a barrel of worms, but I honestly think Inoue could walk Figueroa into some pretty horrible shots and make it look quite easy. Espinoza, because of his sheer size, maybe yeah, how he makes feather I've got no idea.