Figueroa had never before boxed outside of the United States but will return home with the WBA featherweight title.

Tempers flared both before and after the fight.

Beforehand, there was an argument about Ball having had his hands wrapped without a member of Team Figueroa being present to watch. Afterwards, Ball's teammates from the Everton Red Triangle gym took exception to the way Figueroa's team celebrated the knockout and - for a moment or two - things threatened to turn ugly.

Thoughout the night, Robles kept Figueroa solely focused on the task at hand. Although confident that Figueroa was doing enough to win a hard-fought battle, he instructed his man to maintain his aggressive approach to the very end. The tactic paid off handsomely.

"Great fight," Robles told The Ring afterwards.

"I checked the scorecards and we were up with two of the judges. We were winning by split decision. The French judge [Jean-Robert Laine] had us down by five points, if you could believe that or not.

"The other two had us winning but I still felt like we need to finish strong. Listen, we're in the lion's den and we're on the B-side so, we needed to finish strong and got the knockout at the end. It's amazing."

Two-weight world champion Figueroa linked up with Robles after delivering a disappointing performance and losing his WBC featherweight title to Stephen Fulton in their rematch last February.

The partnership got underway with an unconvincing win over Joet Gonzalez in a WBA title final eliminator but the two continued to work together and learn each other's ways. The Ring's No. 7-ranked featherweight looked close to his marauding best against Ball.

"He got a couple of losses along the way but I've always said that you learn more from your defeats than you do from your wins," Robles said.

"Those defeats made him a better fighter. He's a better fighter today than he ever was so I'm proud of him."