Nick Ball achieved a lifelong dream when he became the WBA featherweight champion in 2024 but the Liverpudlian isn’t the type to stand still.

Ball, 21-0-1 (12 KOs), will defend his belt against Ireland’s T.J Doheny, 26-5 (20 KOs), in Liverpool on March 15th and it sounds like the fight is the first step of a new plan.

Ball’s trainer, Paul Stevenson, has made no secret of the fact that he would like Ball to be the man to welcome multi-weight world champion and pound-for-pound star, Naoya Inoue, to the 126lb division.

In September, former IBF super bantamweight champion, Doheny, travelled to Japan to challenge Inoue for the Japanese superstar’s undisputed 122lb title. He was forced to retire after seven rounds.

When the options for Ball’s latest world title defence were presented, the Irishman ticked plenty of boxes and the opportunity to one-up Inoue was one of them.

“It's a good fight, a good match-up. He’ll bring the best out in Nick,” Stevenson told The Ring.

“It's a good opponent, as you say. He's been in there with Inoue. I want Nick in with Inoue soon. He's coming up, so it'll be a good little comparison fight.

“I think he got injured in his last fight with Inoue, but whatever. It's good to have that comparison to have people talking. It was a part or a piece of the cake, if you like.

“When you're picking a sort of voluntary defence, you're looking to get the most out of it in every area. That's one of the areas we like but stylistically as well.

“The fella's good and he's a former world champion. He’s very viable and he'll bring a good fight.”

Ball had a couple of weeks off after his tenth round stoppage of Ronny Rios in October but was soon back in the gym ticking over, waiting for another date.

Ball’s march towards the top of the featherweight division has been relentless. A near shut out over Isaac Dogboe has been overshadowed by his controversial draw with WBC champion, Rey Vargas, and gritty title winning victory over the quality Raymond Ford. He followed that up with a hard fought stoppage of former world title challenger, Rios.

By the time he comes to ring centre to face off with Doheny, Ball will have boxed five top class opponents over the course of 16 months. In modern boxing, it is an almost unheard of level of activity for a world class fighter but Ball lives in the gym and Stevenson is happy for him to continue capitalising on his momentum and keep improving.

“Yeah, because these are his years. He’s coming right into his prime now,” Stevenson said. “You get sort of a prime as a fighter but then a prime as a world champion. Once you become world champion, then developing as a world champion, which he's doing now.

“He's had defence number one there last time out and we want him nice and busy. These fights every 12 weeks or so are brilliant for him.”