Nick Ball has his eyes on staking a claim for a place at the top table of the featherweight division when he faces Ludlum Lamati this weekend.
Ball, who is the current WBC silver featherweight champion, faces South African Lamati on the undercard of Michael Conlan’s IBF world title clash with Luis Alberto Lopez. Now 17-0 with 10 KOs to his name, the 26-year-old was one of the breakout stars of 2022, as he beat Isaac Lowe, Nathanael Kakololo and Jesus Ramirez Rubio.
And Ball, who trains under Paul Stevenson at the Everton Red Triangle gym, is fighting with the intention of placing his name right in the frame to fight whoever emerges as IBF world champion next. He said: "That is the place I am going, the level I am going, which is world level.
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"If I get the opportunity to fight the winner, I will take it with both hands. I’m made up; it is a good card to be on, with it being a world title at my weight.
"Although obviously I am concentrating on my fight, putting on a good performance, and trying to steal the show."
Ball is also confident that his swashbuckling approach to fights contains all the right ingredients to demand the attention of the watching public and establish his world title credentials.
"Definitely, that’s what boxing is," he says when asked about his all-action approach. "We go out there to entertain people, and I always want to look good doing it.
"I feel like my style does that, and people would rather watch a style like mine over an average boxer, if that’s what you want to call it."
And asked about the threat of Lamati, Ball said: "I don’t really know anything about him, just that he’s tall, but they all are until they get in the ring with me and I bring them down to my size!"
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