The scene seemed perfect, as if it were scripted by an imaginative Hollywood writer. Callum Walsh, the ascending Irishman, delivered a quick, picturesque right uppercut that left Dean Sutherland crumpled in a heap, unable to continue. The crowd inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden erupted the night before St. Patrick’s Day.

Nick Ball is a man of action rather than words. The 45 minutes or so that the WBA featherweight champion got to spent in the ring with TJ Doheny on Saturday night gave the 28-year-old Liverpudlian a welcome break from a seemingly endless and tiresome stream of questions about undisputed and Ring Magazine super-bantamweight champion, Naoya Inoue.

M&S BANK ARENA, LIVERPOOL -- Saturday night's 12-fight card was long, extended further by a six-round middleweight float bout immediately following Nick Ball's second world featherweight championship title defense, meaning there was plenty to cover.

M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool - WBA world featherweight champion Nick Ball broke down and stopped former world champion TJ Doheny in ten rounds. (photo by Leigh Dawney)

M&S BANK ARENA, LIVERPOOL -- Nick Ball survived a controversial flashpoint at the end of round one, before producing a dominant second defence of his WBA featherweight world title against TJ Doheny on another triumphant Merseyside return.

Over the past few months, TJ Doheny could have been forgiven for feeling like a background character in his own story. The Irishman is in Liverpool to challenge WBA featherweight champion, Nick Ball, 21-0-1 (12 KOs), but rather than centring around Doheny’s chances of springing an upset, the majority of pre-fight talk has been about the seventh round stoppage defeat he suffered at the hands of undisputed super bantamweight champion, Naoya Inoue, last September and whether Ball will be able to lay the groundwork for a future fight with the Japanese superstar by doing a better, more clinical job.

NICK BALL WILL make a second defence of his WBA world featherweight title against former world champion TJ Doheny at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool on Saturday March 15 on a bumper card. The card is co-headlined by British and Commonwealth bantamweight champion Andrew Cain going up against the European champion Charlie Edwards in association with Wasserman Boxing’.

Nick Ball and TJ Doheny had to be separated by security after their weigh-in at BOXPARK in Liverpool today after the latter missed weight by an ounce (0.6lbs).

In 2024, Nick Ball laid siege to the world’s top featherweights. In March, the Liverpudlian was forced to settle for a disappointing draw despite appearing to bully then WBC champion, Rey Vargas but regathered himself to rip the WBA belt away from quality American, Ray Ford.

, undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue wants to fight three more times this year. The next fight Inoue (29-0, 26 KOs) will take will be against David Picasso, slated for the spring in the United States with a June target date in Las Vegas. If all goes well, “The Monster” also has plans to fight on a date in September, and then make his Riyadh Season debut on a date in December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.