Rachel Ball (born 12 March 1991) is an English

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

and former kickboxer who has held the WBC female

interim An interim is a period of temporary pause or change in a sequence of events, or a temporary state, and is often applied to transitional political entities. Interim may also refer to: Temporary organizational arrangements (general concept) *Provis ...

super-bantamweight title since 2020.

Professional career

Ball made her professional debut on 17 December 2017, scoring a four-round points decision (PTS) victory against Claudia Ferenczi at the Banks's Stadium's Stadium Suite in

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

. After three more PTS victories she suffered the first defeat of her career in March 2019, losing by

majority decision A majority decision (MD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving striking. In a majority decision, two of the three judges agree on whi ...

(MD) over eight rounds against former European female super-featherweight champion Katharina Thanderz. She bounced back from defeat with a ten-round PTS win against Bec Connolly in a final eliminator for the Commonwealth female super-featherweight title in November, followed by a victory against favoured opponent

Shannon Courtenay Shannon Courtenay (born 3 July 1993) is a British professional boxer who held the WBA female bantamweight title between April and October 2021. Professional career Courtenay made her professional debut on 23 March 2019, scoring a four-round p ...

in August 2020. After dropping Courtenay in the opening round with a left hook, Ball secured the win via PTS over eight rounds. She next faced IBF female junior-bantamweight champion

Jorgelina Guanini Jorgelina Guanini (born 31 May 1992) is an Argentine professional boxer who has held the IBF junior bantamweight title since 2018. Professional career Guanini made her professional debut on 19 September 2015, fighting to a split draw (SD) again ...

on 14 November 2020, with the vacant WBC female

super-bantamweight title on the line. The bout served as part of the

undercard In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

for

Katie Taylor Katie Taylor (born 2 July 1986) is an Irish professional boxer and former footballer. She is a two-weight world champion and the current undisputed lightweight champion, having held the WBA title since 2017; the IBF title since 2018; and the ...

's world title defence against Miriam Gutiérrez at The SSE Arena in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Ball was originally scheduled to face

Ebanie Bridges Ebanie Bridges (born 22 September 1986) is an Australian professional boxer. She has held the IBF female bantamweight title since 2022. As an amateur, Bridges competed in the women's bantamweight event at the 2016 and 2017 Australasian Golden ...

for the vacant WBA female bantamweight title, but Bridges was forced to withdraw after suffering an injury during training. The WBA title was set to still be up for grabs with the change of opponent, however, after Guanini failed to make the bantamweight limit at the pre-fight weigh-in, the WBA withdrew their sanction for the fight. The WBC agreed to allow the pair to fight for their interim super-bantamweight world title, but Guanini also failed to weigh inside the super-bantamweight limit, causing the title to be on the line for Ball only. Ball stayed behind her jab for the first three rounds, moving forward while fighting at range as Guanini closed the distance to fight on the inside with hooks. The pair engaged at close quarters in the fourth before Ball went back to fighting at range with combination punches in the fifth. Ball became more aggressive in the second half of the fight, landing straight right hands and hooks en route to a wide

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighte ...

(UD) victory. Two judges scored the bout 99–91 and the third scored it 99–92 to award Ball the WBC female interim super-bantamweight title.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Rachel Living people 1991 births English women boxers Sportspeople from Walsall Super-bantamweight boxers Featherweight boxers