Third time’s a charm.

That’s what Ronnie Rios is hoping when he challenges Nick Ball for the WBA featherweight title at the M&S Bank Arena (formerly The Echo Arena), Liverpool, England, on Saturday.

Rios previously came up short in two attempts at junior featherweight against WBC titlist Rey Vargas (UD 12) in 2017 and then-IBF/WBA boss Murodjon Akhmadaliev (TKO12) in 2022.

He returned to boxing after 22 months off earlier this year with an impressive fifth-round stoppage over Nicolas Polanco, which lead him to another, and likely last, world title shot.

“I have a different mindset for this fight than the other [world title] fights,” Rios (34-4, 17 knockouts) told The Ring. “I feel a lot more confident going into this fight.

“I started my career at 126, I was actually 126 for the first couple of years and then I dropped back down to 122. I had maybe six, seven fights at 122, but the majority of my career has been at 126. But the title challenges I had prior to this, I had at 122.”

What turned out to be Rios’ extended hiatus was actually meant to be final, however, as boxing does, it reeled him back in.

“I did retire for those 22 months, I didn’t plan on coming back,” he explained. “I had a full-time job, I was a leasing consultant for Avalon. I have a family, I was just focusing on that and then I missed the sport, I miss the drive and I told myself, ‘I know I can win those world titles if I try again.’ I just had that passion and hunger.

“I’ve always heard, and now I’m a firm believer, nothing fixes your mindset like time. Honestly, after the Akhmadaliev fight, I didn’t have the hunger, I retired, I didn’t love the sport anymore, I was tired of the sport and then during that time off, I missed it, I missed the little things. It’s funny, I missed the things that I didn’t like to do, for example interviews, I was always very shy. I didn’t like interviews prior to fights, I kept myself to myself. I even missed that during my time off. I missed the pictures, I missed the promos. I was like, ‘If I was to comeback, I’ll have to do it all different.’ And sure enough when I did comeback, I have been doing everything different and I’ve been having fun with it.”

His advisor, Roberto Diaz, has known Rios for many years and did initially question the fighters decision to return to boxing.

“After the time off he came to me and said, ‘I want to fight again.’ That’s very common, you hear it, especially from a fighter like Ronny, who had done it from such an early age,” said Diaz. “That’s basically what they’ve done their whole lives. When you take it away, sometimes they miss it, sometimes they don’t.

“I’d heard it quite a bit when they’d reached out and I try, trust me, I really tried to take it out of his mind but he was very set on coming back. In fact, I told him, ‘OK, show me.’ He was training for a year and I was hoping in that time, he would throw in the towel and say, ‘You know what? I don’t have it anymore.’ And that’s it.

“When I saw his motivation, I had no choice but to help him. Then earlier this year when he had that fight and he won by knockout, I loved what I saw because it was an older but not worn, not tired, not old fighter, just a wiser veteran. He was aggressive, went in there and worked hard and didn’t look like he’d been out for nearly two years. He got the knockout, and that lead to this opportunity.”

This also marks the first time Rios will have fought outside America since turning professional back in 2008.

“This is good, this is something I wanted, this is something different,” he said. “This puts me out of my comfort zone, even though I don’t feel uncomfortable at the moment, this is something new to me, this is mind blowing. The pressure is not on me anymore because I’m not boxing at home. It feels like I’m boxing for the first time all over, I’ve got that hunger, I’ve got that drive.”

The 34-year-old veteran is well prepared for Ball, and says he knows what the defending titleholder will try to do in their fight.

“He likes to come forward and put the pressure on,” he said. “I’m not going to have to go looking for him because I know he’s going to come towards me. We have several game plans, we can’t just come into a big fight with just one game plan, we have a few and I know he’s going to put the pressure on, so I’m expecting that.”

In fact, Rios intends to turn Ball’s biggest strength against him.

“He’s going to be coming forward, trust me. I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I know what to capitalize on,” he said calmly. “I’ve seen a lot of tapes on him, he likes to come forward, he likes to be the bully, he likes to be in command. There’s some fights where I’ve seen holes in his game, so I plan on going out there and capitalizing on that. We’re ready for Saturday.”

Rios, who is a sizable 15/2 (+750) underdog, is taking everything in his stride.

“I know for a fact, I can take him into deep waters,” he said. “I know he likes to come forward, so we’ve got to make him feel uncomfortable, we’ve got to switch up the game plan. I’ve had close to 40 fights, I’ve seen a lot of different styles.”

Diaz also understands how tough this fight will be but feels Rios is in a good place to cause the upset.

“No doubt, I’m not blind, I understand the game, it’s a tough task, young kid, in his hometown, undefeated, defending his title and has the motivation to come out successful. But I love these opportunities because these are the types of fighters that believe, and have experience, and you can’t buy experience, and that only comes with time and Ronny brings experience. He’s bringing hunger, talents always been there, it’s just a matter of getting that desire back,” said Diaz. “Once you have that desire, you have the hunger and you have that talent you have that one more fight in you and you’re a dangerous fighter.”

Ball (20-0-1, 11 KOs), rated at No. 4 by The Ring at featherweight, turned professional in 2017 and claimed a WBC regional title by beating Isaac Lowe (TKO 6) on the undercard of Tyson Fury-Dillian Whyte. That proved to be the leg up the 27-year-old needed. He then added wins over Ludumo Lamati (TKO 12) and former junior featherweight titlist Isaac Dogboe (UD 12) to firm up his title credentials.

In March, Ball overcame a large size disadvantage to drop WBC titlist Vargas twice to earn a draw that many felt he deserved to win. He then met WBA ruler Raymond Ford and edged him in a close contest by 12-round split decision.

Ball-Rios, plus undercard action, will be broadcast on ESPN+ at 2 p.m. ET/ 11 a.m. PT and on TNT Sports at 7:00 p.m. GMT.

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected].

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