BUILT FOR BATTLE
just a little bit at a time, talking about it a bit each day. We look at different fighters and different situations that we have encountered and that we will encounter.” It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Stevenson spends time teaching his fighters about the greats of bygone days and highlighting the techniques and tactics that made them so good. The E.R.T. is a real boxing gym. You won’t see any short, Instagram- friendly bursts of pad work. The boxers won’t spend 10 minutes posing in front of the mirror taking photos for their social media feeds once training is over. Everything has a reason, everything is done with a purpose, and the boxers produced by Stevenson and his assistant, Anthony Humphreys, fight in the same way. Ball is a product of his environment. Yes, being from inner city Liverpool has shaped the 28-year-old’s unbothered outlook and character, and his short, powerful build is largely responsible for his aggressive style, but the E.R.T. has provided the ideal environment for him to develop into the fighter he has become. “Nick was at the Kirkby Club. We had lads at his age going through the championships like Nick was, and I liked him because – back then, even – he was short and fast,” Stevenson remembered. “He’s giving everything away in terms of height and reach to these big, lanky southpaws with England vests on, and he’s really giving it to them. “He stopped boxing when he was about 15, and then when he was about 18, 19, he came to see me and said he wanted to come here but that he wasn’t interested in boxing amateur; he wanted to turn pro. “No boxer I’ve ever trained has come in and been the perfect pro straight away. It takes time. But you know when you’ve got something to work with. Nick was a three-time national champ in the amateurs and just a fighter through and through. “The first day I took him on the pads, I said, ‘Well, you’ve come to the right
place,’ because I could just tell that I was going to be able to get something out of him with his abilities and the things he had. I could see straight away what was possible. He developed fast. After a year or two of working with him, getting him fights, keeping him busy, I just knew in my boots he was going to be a world champion.” “If you know boxing in this city, you know this gym is where it’s happening,” Ball said. “You don’t know until you try something, but when I came here, it was just like, ‘Don’t look back; this is the place for me.’ “I fit in well, and the way Paul works and works with us all, it’s proper. It’s not nonsense. It’s all business and proper stuff. You only have to be here to see that.” T he walls of the E.R.T. are plastered with photographs of champions who have passed through the gym over the years. The current crop of fighters are quickly creating their own legacies, but if they ever need any further proof that Stevenson’s system works, they need only look to the man hitting the bag or shadowboxing alongside them. Almost every single opponent the all- action Ball has ever sparred or boxed has ducked between the ropes with the same foolproof plan to outbox him. They only find out exactly what type of fighter he is once the bell rings, and they are quickly forced to rack their brains for a backup plan they never thought they would need. Fighters from the gym don’t tend to scream and shout about what makes them so successful – those secrets are kept within the gym’s walls – but Ball wouldn’t have reached the level he has if he were a one-dimensional pressure fighter. He has spent years perfecting the intricacies that make his size his strength. “From the outside looking in, it probably looks different, but when
you’re in there with me and you’re feeling it and feeling the pace that I go at, it’s different,” Ball said. “My strength, my fitness – but it’s not even just that; I can box as well. People underestimate my boxing skills. I’ve boxed loads of taller fighters and beaten them to the jab and things like that. “No fighter out there trains like me. I’m doing it all year round so I can take that into the ring with me confidently knowing that I’m fitter and stronger and that I’ll do whatever it takes to win more than them.” Although in some ways it suits Stevenson for people to continually underestimate Ball, he does feel like it is high time that people begin to look a little closer at just what it is he is doing. They aren’t the type of people to beg for attention, but there is a big difference between praise and recognition. “People can look at a certain style and say, ‘Oh, he does this wrong. He does that wrong. He does that well. He does this well,’ and 99.9% of the time, they don’t even know what they’re looking at. They’re probably missing nine-tenths of the iceberg,” he said. “A lot of the time, people think they know what they’re going to do with a fighter like Nick or any fighter you mention in the world. They think, ‘I know what he’s going to do and I know how he does it,’ and quite often they don’t. They think they do in their arrogance, but there’s a lot of cleverness that goes into what Nick’s doing. … He’s a very, very well-rounded boxer-puncher and a real force.” Stevenson – who also manages Ball – spent years refining his style, matching him smartly and ensuring that whenever an opportunity arrived, he would be ready to take it. Ball has proven himself again and again, but the ease and speed at which he has established himself at world level has surprised almost everybody outside of the gym. His outstanding run started back in November 2023 with a dominant decision victory over former 122-pound titleholder Isaac Dogboe.
The breakthrough performance earned him a mandatory shot at WBC featherweight beltholder Rey Vargas on the undercard of the enormous Riyadh Season heavyweight showdown between Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou. Despite bullying the Mexican veteran and dropping him twice, the judges handed in a derided split draw. Rather than stewing on the result, Ball got back in the gym. Three months later he was back in Saudi Arabia for an even tougher looking test against the ambitious, talented southpaw Raymond Ford. Ball upped his performance accordingly, boxing and fighting his way to a split
I got another opportunity to become world champion, and I’ve done that. So it was a boss year for me,” Ball said with typical understatement. He isn’t the type to dwell on his achievements. “You can, but only to a certain degree, because there’s always more, isn’t there? I’ve got my next fight coming, so I’ve got to focus on that.” It usually takes any sportsman time to feel like they belong at the highest level. If they have the talent, eventually the game begins to slow down. Boxing is slightly different in that it also requires certain qualities that can’t be taught or acquired through experience. Any weaknesses will only
Ronny Rios succumbed to the Englishman’s suffocating pressure.
decision to rip away Ford’s WBA title. It was a show of mental strength and physical skill that earned him a nomination for The Ring Magazine’s Comeback of The Year award. He rounded out 2024 by turning back a determined effort from Ronny Rios, stopping the former world title challenger in 10 bloody rounds. “Life-changing year, wasn’t it? Ups and downs. Obviously everyone knew what happened with Vargas with the draw. I should be WBC champion. But
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