by Shaun Brown

Jake Ball confirmed to Boxing Scene today that there was no break to the hand injured in his entertaining victory over Joe Sherriff (11-1, 3 KOs) in their English Light Heavyweight title eliminator last night (September 1) at York Hall.

Ball moved to (10-1, 8 KOs) after his 10-round decision (97-94) over Sherriff that saw the Matchroom fighter damage his right hand in round two, a round that saw Sherriff down from a left to the body.

“The hand’s sore. I’m just badly bruised. I went to the hospital this morning and had an x-ray. There’s no break in it. Just swollen like a balloon. All good,” Ball told Boxing Scene, and added that he will be back in the gym on Wednesday working on his fitness before being back to normal in a couple of weeks.

After dropping Sherriff, Ball capitalised on his success and thundered through with more shots to the body that eventually saw his opponent crumple to the floor with under a minute in the round to go. Ball celebrated as referee Jeff Hinds stepped in, but the intervention was to only give the despairing figure of Sherriff an eight count.

“I thought the fight was stopped in the second round,” said Ball. “I don’t know what the referee was playing at. He pulled me off Joe to give him a count. I didn’t think in professional boxing you could do that. Think I landed 10-15 clean shots and Sheriff didn’t reply once. The referee jumped in and pulled me off, and that’s why I screamed. I thought he stopped it. I thought the fight was stopped then I saw him giving a count. I thought how can you pull me off him to give him a count? I thought it was mad.

“Personally, I thought the fight should have been stopped in the second round but I’m not complaining. I’m over the moon and glad to have done 10 rounds.

“I hurt my hand in the second round so a few of the rounds I took it easy. You could see I didn’t throw many shots. Every time I was landing it, it was vibrating through my arm. The pain was unbearable. It made me box a bit smarter. It was a great learning fight, all new experience for me so I’m over the moon.”

With 10 rounds in the bag, and a hard-fought win Ball is brimming with confidence and wants the winner of next weekend’s English Light Heavyweight title fight between champion Joel McIntyre and challenger Liam Conroy.

“I’ll be having a chat with [promoter] Eddie [Hearn] next week and whoever the winner of that is that’s who we want.”

Last night’s hurdle was a long way from the Jake Ball that was stopped in the first round of his fight against JJ McDonagh last November. It’s a moment that is long forgotten, and one that Ball has put well and truly behind him and vows never to repeat again.

“The thing is, what happened in that fight, it was my own doing that loss. I never doubted myself for a second ability wise, fitness wise… it was inexperience that lost me the fight. That’s why we’ve changed the training camps, working on new things: Concentration, focus, one fight at a time and that’s the new gameplan from now on.”