The Raymond Ford Effect: How One War Changed Nick Ball’s Title Reign

The war with Raymond Ford may have taken something out of Nick Ball, leaving the risk-averse fighter we’ve seen in his two fights since then. Ford put Ball (22-0-1, 13 KOs) through pure torture for 12 rounds in losing a questionable 12-round split decision in June 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Ball’s Post-Ford Avoidance Strategy

WBA featherweight champion Ball, 28, hasn’t fought any featherweights since his war with Ray Ford. Indeed, his next challenger, the non-puncher Sam Goodman, was chosen from the super bantamweight division for him to defend against on August 16th on DAZN PPV in Riyadh.

Ford’s behavior is similar to that of a soldier in war who doesn’t want to return to the frontlines after experiencing the horror of combat. So, instead of getting back out there to meet the enemy, Ball is staying in the rear, protecting his hide.

Fans believe that Ball has been avoiding the highly touted Bruce Carrington, as he’s viewed a real threat along the same lines as Raymond Ford. Carrington has criticized Ball’s avoidance of him, and his repeated selection of non-featherweights to defend his WBA title against.

The overall perception of Nick Ball by fans is that he’s purposely selecting weaker punchers from the super bantamweight division [122] to artificially extend his reign as long as possible to ensure that he’s still in possession of the WBA 126-lb champion when the superstar Naoya Inoue moves up to featherweight. That’s a fight that is expected to shower Nick with millions, setting him up for life as a rich fighter.

Milking the WBA Title Reign

It just seems so obvious to people what Ball is doing with his milking of his WBA title by choosing the light-hitting Sam Goodman (20-0, 8 KOs), the ham-and-eggers 38-year-old Doheny, and 35-year-old Rios for his title defenses.

The Ford fight seems to have taken something out of Ball, causing him to select his next two opponents, TJ Doheny and Ronny Rios, from the super featherweight division to defend his WBA featherweight title against. What made it look even worse is that these weren’t even the best from the 130-lb division. These were arguably regular run-of-the-mill fringe-level fighters that were selected for Ball to defend his