WBA Featherweight Nick Ball (23-0-1, 13 KOs) was forced to battle hard to win a 12-round unanimous decision over the technically superior Sam Goodman (20-1, 8 KOs) in an entertaining back-and-forth contest on Saturday night in the chief support fight at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ball looked exhausted in the championship rounds from shots and the constant attacks from the younger fighter, Goodman. In the 12th round, Goodman landed a lightning-fast four-punch combination that cut Ball over his left eye. The punches were thrown so fast that Ball couldn’t react, and his head was going every which way with the punches.
The scores were 117-111, 118-110 (wtf?), and 115-113
Goodman set his feet in the final three rounds and outslugged Ball, showing excellent power on his shots. If Sam had fought that way earlier in the fight, he would have improved his chances of winning.
In reality, the fight should have been scored a draw because Goodman fought Ball to a standstill in the fight, and easily deserved to win six of the twelve rounds. The judges liked the work that Ball did on the inside while ignoring the jabs, right hands, and body shots that Goodman was hitting him with all night.
Goodman, 26, showed so many facets to his game, boxing, slugging, and landing picturesque left hooks to the body of Ball. It was the first time in Ball’s game that he’d been outboxed and made to look the way he did by a fighter that was over his head in actual ability.
A rematch would make sense between these two fighters because it deserves one after how closely contested it was.
Last Updated on 08/16/2025
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