The former interim champ’s highlight-reel knockout of Carlos Castro on Saturday night was also a star-making performance delivered on the grandest stage at a sold-out Madison Square Garden. As much as the affable fighter nicknamed “Shu Shu” has enjoyed his “surreal” victory tour, the Brooklyn native will keep a close eye on what transpires this Saturday night in Liverpool, England.

Carrington expects WBA champ Nick Ball to beat Brandon Figueroa. If the favored Ball wins, Carrington is open to battling Ball in the Liverpool native’s home country in his pursuit of the most meaningful featherweight fights possible.

“I would definitely be down to fight in England, as long as it makes sense business-wise,” Carrington told The Ring. “You know, I don’t wanna give too much leverage away, at the same time. You know, I’m champion, he’s champion. Granted, he’s a more established champion than I am at the moment. But still, I don’t wanna give too much leverage away.

“So, if it makes more sense to have us fight over here in New York, then I would love that. I would actually rather that, but you know, I wouldn’t mind going over across the pond to take his strap and bring it back home to New York as well and become a unified champ.”

Ball (23-0-1, 13 KOs) is set to make the fourth defense of his WBA belt when he faces Figueroa (26-2-1, 19 KOs) at M&S Bank Arena, where three of his four defenses have been scheduled to take place. DAZN will stream Ball-Figueroa as the 12-round main event of a show scheduled to start at 7 p.m. GMT in the United Kingdom and 2 p.m. ET in the United States.

The Ring ranks Ball third among its featherweight contenders for a vacant championship. Carrington is ranked sixth and Figueroa is seventh.

Carrington feels Figueroa needs a knockout to take Ball’s belt in his hometown, but the durable Ball has a reliable chin. Ball is almost a 4-1 favorite to defeat Figueroa, a former WBC featherweight and WBA/WBC junior featherweight champ from Weslaco, Texas.

“I think that Nick Ball will win the fight,” Carrington said. “It’ll be a firefight, though. Stylistically, it’s very fan friendly. Both of them guys, they like to put pressure, they’re very physical, but I think that Brandon Figueroa’s defense is what’s gonna be the reason he might lose this fight.

“He kinda throws a few rounds away because he gets hit with big shots and judges, it catches their eyes and they start to think, ‘Like, OK, maybe this guy won this round. He throws a lotta punches, but he got caught with a lotta shots.’ So, I think that’s one of the reasons why Nick Ball may win this fight.”

Assuming Ball-Figueroa unfolds the way he expects, Carrington (17-0, 10 KOs) hopes their promoters – Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. (Carrington) and Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions (Ball) – engage in serious negotiations for a title unification fight next.

“I feel like the featherweight division is the hottest it’s ever been, so this is the time to make it happen,” Carrington said. “So however we gotta make it happen, we’re gonna make it happen. I want to fight Nick Ball. It needs to go down, but it all has to make sense business-wise.”