Over 80 per cent tip Nick Ball to stop Ronny Rios

IS Nick Ball vs. Ronny Rios a foregone conclusion?

On Saturday night (October 5) Ball will defend his WBA featherweight title for the first time against Rios in Liverpool. Not only will the champion have home advantage but the Liverpudlian will also have thousands of Scousers cheering him on at the M&S Bank Arena.

Ball’s first defence comes on the back of his impressive win against Raymond Ford where a split decision verdict went the way of Ball. Rios is seven years older than the current champion and fighting out of America for the first time in his professional career. The 34-year-old has also mixed in good company over the years taking on Rey Vargas, Azat Hovhannisyan and Murodjon Akhmadaliev at super bantamweight. The latter two managing to beat Rios inside the distance with Vargas winning on points.

Rios did float around the 126lbs featherweight mark between 2009 and 2016 before chasing world honours at 122lbs. Ball could well be the bigger man on the night this Saturday, however.

At time of writing (Monday, September 30) 81.63 per cent of Boxing News app users believe Ball will win by KO or TKO. Should the Scouser do so it would be his first win not on points since stopping Ludumo Lamati four fights ago in May 2023.

Meanwhile, 17.01 per cent of our app users think Ball wins on points while less than one per cent think Rios will win by either points or inside the distance.

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