Ronny Rios Q&A – Rios looks ahead to clash with Nick Ball

Ronny Rios is determined to ruin Nick Ball’s homecoming party and steal his WBA featherweight title when they fight at Liverpool’s M & S Bank Arena on Saturday night. For all the latest fight odds, visit our sportsbook.

The compact Ball, 20-0-1 (11 KOs), is in a rich vein of form and will be heavily favoured this weekend. But the 34-year-old Californian – who has boxed for world titles twice before – insists that he has never felt better and believes that he and the unbeaten Liverpudlian could produce one of the fights of the year.

Although Rios, 34-4 (17 KOs), is well aware that he will be entering the lion’s den, he is looking forward to the entire experience and cut a relaxed figure when 32Red caught up with him.

“Nick is a legitimate champion”

32Red: Ronny, you’ve boxed at world title level before but did this opportunity come out of the blue?

RR: We were offered another fight for an interim WBA title. I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ Then the WBA didn’t approve of the fight or whatever and that’s when they were like, ‘Hey, what about Nick Ball? His people offered the fight.’ Hell, yeah. In my opinion Nick Ball is a legitimate champion, of course I want to fight him.

I’m a fighter and a competitor. I want to fight the person that’s the top guy, I don’t want to fight someone to become an interim champion. Then they said it would be in the UK. Coming to the UK has always been a dream of mine so that made it two dreams in one trip.

32Red: You have spent the first part of your career campaigning at featherweight but then dropped to super bantamweight where you came up just short in two world title fights. You walked away from the sport following your stoppage loss to Murodjon Akhmadaliev in June 2022 but returned as a featherweight earlier this year. Does it feel like the break and move up in weight has given you a new lease of life?

“Honestly, I hated this sport”

RR: I retired for two years and I’ll never say I regret them because as a fighter, after the Akhmadaliev fight, it wasn’t just that my dreams were torn apart. It was the fact there was a lot of turmoil behind closed doors with my previous team. Honestly, I hated this sport. I didn’t want to do it any more. I took those two years off and I missed it.

Every night I’d think to myself about fighting for the world title twice and coming up short. I’d tell myself that I could do it. I wasn’t telling myself that I thought I could do it, I was telling myself that I knew I could do it. I wanted to come back. I reached out to my current team members and they were all on board with it. This is our second fight together and I feel the difference. It’s not just inside the ring, you have to feel comfortable out of the ring too. You can’t go into a ring with any animosity or doubt in the back of your mind. You have to go into the ring clear, hungry and determined.

32Red: People questioned whether Ball would get found out when tested at the very highest level but he has thrived in his world title fights and performed extremely well against Rey Vargas and Raymond Ford. What are the difficulties of fighting somebody with Nick’s stocky build and aggressive style?

“This is a candidate for fight of the year”

RR: We were doing a face-off and he isn’t a lot shorter than I am. I actually prefer fighting someone his height and, not only that, but he’s going to be right there for me all day. This is going to be a battle of wills.

32Red: Having seen the way you fight and having now spoken to you, would I be right in assuming that you are a fan of Nick’s style of fighting? Given the way you both go about your business, it sounds like the fans could be in for a treat on Saturday night.

RR: I like the way he fights. He comes forward and he’s aggressive. I come forward and I’m aggressive too. I think it has the potential to be a candidate for fight of the year. When I see Nick Ball, I just see somebody who is hard working. In my opinion, he’s fought the best. Even that one draw [with Vargas] I haven’t seen it yet but from what I hear, he should have won the fight. In my eyes, Nick’s the champion and the one to beat.

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