WBA featherweight champion Nick Ball is bringing big-time boxing to Liverpool on Saturday when he defends his crown against visiting Californian veteran Ronny Rios.

Ball, 20-0-1 (11 KOs), is following in the footsteps of the likes of Alan Rudkin, John Conteh and Tony Bellew in a city with rich fighting tradition and is an in-form fighter.

Ball’s last two fights have been in Saudi Arabia, a contentious draw against Rey Vargas and his title winning effort against Raymond Ford.

“I’m glad to be back, fighting in my home city, where it all started, fighting as a world champion,” said Ball, who this week has been featured on Liverpool FC’s socials and has felt the support of the city getting behind him. 

“That’s how it should be and that’s what it is,” added Ball. “We get behind our own. You see someone putting the hard work in, it pays off.”

Rios is more experienced, but Ball is on a roll. 

“He thinks he’s gonna go in there and push me back, that’s not gonna happen,” insisted Ball. “Once you get in the ring, it’s a different story. So good luck with that… It will be all-action from me.”

At today’s press conference, which was respectful all the way through, Rios said he knew he had a big task ahead of him.

“This is my third attempt, we’ve got a good fighter in front of us,” said the Californian. “These are the fights that I get up for. I have always wanted to test myself, and in my eyes Nick Ball is one of the best fighters at 126. I’m excited to test myself. We’ve had a great camp. Two more days and it’s here.” 

Rios, 34-4 (17 KOs), pledged to go forward and meet Ball head-on.

Rios is in town with famed manager/matchmaker Robert Diaz, who insisted Rios came back after a two-year break to return to the ring in April for the right reasons – to win a world title.

“You guys have a great champion, he’s undefeated, he’s done things right, he deserves his homecoming, unfortunately for him, they picked the wrong opponent,” said Diaz.

“You can’t fast-forward into experience… They’ll come straight at each other and the fans will get a great fight.”

Promoter George Warren, who also talked about the possibility of Naoya Inoue moving up to fight Ball, spoke highly of Ball and the potential of his impact on the city.

Warren called Ball “a phenomenal fighter with a great attitude.”

“He has taken the opportunities presented to him with both hands, and constantly shown what a world-class operator he is,” Warren said. “Some of those performances, people forget even before the fights in Riyadh, against [Isaac] Dogboe, and the performance in Riyadh against Vargas when he was robbed and deserved to come away with the WBC title that night, I think the judges got that seriously wrong, and to overcome that and, at 10 week’s notice, go in against a legit, quality world-class like Ray Ford and put on the performance that he did, this guy, is not just one of the most exciting boxers not just in this country but in the world.

“For me, the only one that wins this is Nick Ball and I am so excited to see him back in the ring.”