Nick Ball vs. Rey Vargas Ends in Controversial Decision

On March 8, at the “Knockout Chaos” event at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – we saw an entertaining undercard, with impressive wins for Mark Chamberlain and Israil Madrimov. As we moved towards the main event, we saw Nick Ball (19-0-1, 11 KOs) produce an impressive comeback – ending in frustration against Rey Vargas (36-1-1, 22 KOs) for the WBC Featherweight Title.

Nick Ball Comeback Ends in Frustration

Nick Ball vs. Rey Vargas Recap

The contest began with Ball taking the centre of the ring, but Vargas boxed diligently behind his jab and controlled the distance well. Despite Ball having a better second round, the Mexican fighter landed some smart shots to the body.

Round three was full of more impressive work from the champion, as he used his jab and varied his shots well. The frustration from Ball shone through in round four as his attacks became more obvious – with Vargas landing well to the body. Despite Ball’s best efforts, the movement of Vargas ensured he controlled the distance expertly and picked the Liverpudlian off with his jab. It was difficult to argue with Vargas winning the first five rounds.

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The fight seemed to be going away from Ball, as the Mexican continued to work the body, before in Round seven, the Englishman landed a big right hand, which forced Vargas to go into survival mode, and somehow he made it through, despite being hurt on more than one occasion. Round eight saw another good round for Ball as he caught an off-balance Vargas with a left hook, knocking him down.

As we entered the Championship rounds – the Mexican landed good shots – but most of the pressure came from Ball, whose work had improved drastically since the middle rounds. The Liverpudlian fighter continued to apply all the pressure, landing a great right hand in round 11, knocking Vargas down.

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Round 12 saw Vargas try to fight off the back foot, but Ball continued to walk him down and landed some good left hands towards the end of the round.

The judge’s scorecards read 114-112 for Vargas, with one card 116-110 for Ball, with the last judge scoring it 113-113, with the bout being declared a split draw.

Post Fight Quotes

Ball

“I had two knockdowns and was putting the pressure on for the whole fight.”

“I thought I done enough to win the fight.”

“It’s disappointing really.”

Frank Warren

“He won the fight.”

“I don’t understand it.”

Vargas

“One year of no activity obviously affects my performance.”

“Yes, of course (rematch).”