Nick Ball knocked through the ropes as he loses world title in stunning 12th round KO defeat

Nick Ball was sent sprawling through the ropes as he lost his WBA featherweight world title in dramatic fashion on Saturday evening.

The 28-year-old was knocked out in front of his Liverpool home crowd in the 12th and final round by Brandon Figueroa.

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Ball was mere minutes from taking the bout to the scorecards, where he may have had his hand raised, before he was finished.

A brutal left from Figueroa dropped the champion to the canvas, and having survived the initial count, he was then sent through the ropes.

He said: “Nothing but respect to the champion. Nothing but respect to the crowd here. I’m sorry, I’m just excited. 

“I felt like I was dominating. Nick Ball is a gritty champion; he’s tough. He wasn’t going anywhere.

“I caught him with that short left hook. I was very confident, and I went out there and finished it. 

“He comes to fight. Guys that come to fight, I came here to fight, and I was here to give it my all. 

“It’s been three months away from my family, and coming overseas, eight hours behind in LA, currently it’s 1pm or 2pm.

“But our game plan worked. My father and my family. I’m just happy to be world champion again.”

Figueroa’s post-fight celebrations saw tempers flare in the ring as both teams confronted each other, and objects were thrown from the crowd.

Adam Catterall told talkSPORT’s Fight Night coverage: “You can understand there’s a lot of emotion connected to this.

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“This is their boy. They love him, they want the best for him and in the aftermath of him getting stopped by Brandon Figueroa, they did jump in the ring in order to confront Brandon Figueroa’s team.

“It did dilute very, very quickly. It didn’t spill over and get too ugly.”

“Right now, you cannot take away from Brandon Figueroa. What an unbelievable performance.”

After the dramatic events calmed down, Figueroa added: “I want a fight in my hometown.

“I want to bring it to my fans in the Valley, in the 956. I want to fight down there.

“Let’s unify. I always want the best of the best, but my fans back home, they deserve a fight. So we’re going to go back to the drawing board, re-access this fight and get back to work.”

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What happened post-fight?

Gareth A Davies was joined by Figueroa’s trainer, Manny Robles, live on talkSPORT to apologise for the ugly scenes after Ball’s defeat.

“We apologise if anybody feels disrespected,” Robles said.

“My strength and conditioning coach, when he got up, he got a little too excited, but he wanted to go say hi to his wife.

“She was actually standing on the other side, she wasn’t waving on anybody.

“People took it the wrong way, and they felt disrespected, and I apologise for that.

“Listen, this isn’t my first time fighting for a world title, and normally these types of things don’t ever happen. It never happened to me.

“So if anybody feels disrespected, I’ve always said this, the UK fans are the best fans in the world, by far the best boxing fans.

“They showed that tonight. They really support their fighters, and I commend them for that, and I have nothing but the utmost love and respect for the British fans.”