This week’s slate of televised fights include two title matches – Nick Ball defending his featherweight belt against Brandon Figueroa, and Christian Medina putting his bantamweight title on the line against Adrian Curiel.
Here’s what you need to know about those shows, and more, in this week’s TV Picks for February 5-7, 2026:
Pick it: Nick Ball vs. Brandon Figueroa
When to Watch: Saturday, February 7 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time (7 p.m. GMT)
How to watch: DAZN
Why to Watch: Nick Ball has reigned as a featherweight titleholder for a year and a half. Brandon Figueroa is a former two-division titleholder whose last reign ended a year ago. And their pairing is expected to entertain.
Ball, 23-0-1 (13 KOs), owns the WBA belt at 126lbs. He is making his fourth title defense, and the third in the friendly confines of his hometown of Liverpool. This fight is taking place at M&S Bank Arena.
The 28-year-old has done all of that despite his significant height disadvantage. Or perhaps because of it. At just 5-foot-2, he is a wrecking ball who wears down his opponents with activity and power-punching.
In his first title shot, against Rey Vargas in Riyadh in March 2024, Ball came from behind and scored a pair of knockdowns in the second half of the bout. The judges ruled it a draw, but Ball received another title opportunity less than three months later against Raymond Ford, once again in Riyadh. This time, Ball won the split decision, and so his reign began.
His first defense was a homecoming in Liverpool in October 2024. Ball stopped Ronny Rios in the 10th round, and then did the same thing in the same place to TJ Doheny last March. In his most recent outing, Ball returned to Riyadh and faced Sam Goodman, an undefeated contender venturing up from junior featherweight. Goodman put up a good fight, but Ball triumphed with a unanimous decision.
Ball will be giving up seven inches in height to Figueroa. Figueroa also prefers a fan-friendly style, though, which sometimes involves giving up his size advantage.
Ball’s name had been mentioned in the past as a potential target for Naoya Inoue if the undisputed 122lbs champion were to move up in weight yet again. Inoue of course has a May superfight with Junto Nakatani. With his mandatory challenger out of the way, Ball could instead aim for a voluntary defense or unification against any of his fellow titleholders at 126: Angelo Leo (IBF), Bruce Carrington (WBC) or the fight that we sickos most want to see, Ball against the 6-foot-1 Rafael Espinoza (WBO).
First he needs to get through Figueroa, 26-2-1 (19 KOs), a former junior featherweight and featherweight titleholder. Both of his defeats came against the same person: Stephen Fulton. Despite that, it is fair to say that if Figueroa doesn’t defeat Ball, he at bare minimum needs to put forth a good performance to convince people that he still has what it takes to contend.
That may sound harsh for the 29-year-old from Weslaco, Texas. But the outlook on his career isn’t as bright as it used to be.
Figueroa won his first world title in 2021, giving Luis Nery his first defeat by knocking him out with a seventh-round body shot. Figueroa went straight into a unification match with Fulton six months later. It was a very entertaining and closely contested affair, but Fulton left with the majority decision victory and two title belts in his collection.
Figueroa departed 122lbs and headed up to 126. He stopped Carlos Castro in the sixth round in July 2022, and outpointed former titleholder Mark Magsayo for the interim WBC belt in March 2023. Figueroa then defeated an overweight Jessie Magdaleno with a ninth-round knockout.
Figueroa would be upgraded to the WBC’s primary featherweight titleholder when an injured Rey Vargas was named “champion-in-recess.” Once again, Figueroa’s first defense came against Fulton on the February 2025 undercard of David Benavidez vs. David Morrell. Figueroa didn’t look anywhere near as good as in their first fight, while Fulton performed well again, seizing the title with a clear unanimous decision.
Figueroa returned this past July against perpetual bridesmaid Joet Gonzalez on the undercard of Mario Barrios vs. Manny Pacquiao. Figueroa received the unanimous decision win, though many believed a case could be made that Gonzalez deserved the victory.
The win was enough to convince three sanctioning bodies that Figueroa should be ranked highly. That led the WBA to order Ball to defend against Figueroa. But the real job of convincing will need to come in Liverpool. We’ll know on Saturday whether Figueroa belongs back at the top of the featherweight division, if he’s at least still a contender, or if he’s truly on his way down.
The undercard includes a featherweight fight between Andrew Cain, 14-1 (12 KOs), and Alejandro Jair Gonzalez, 19-6-3 (11 KOs); as well as a match between junior bantamweights Jack Turner, 13-0 (12 KOs), and Juan Carlos Martinez Urbina, 10-3-1 (4 KOs).
More Fights to Watch
Thursday, February 5: Albert Ramirez vs. Lerrone Richards (Punching Grace)
The broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time (11:30 p.m. GMT).
Albert Ramirez, 22-0 (19 KOs), has the WBA’s interim light heavyweight title – which places him third behind primary titleholder Dmitry Bivol (who is the lineal champ and also has the IBF and WBO belts) and secondary titleholder David Benavidez (who is also the WBC’s primary guy at 175lbs).
What a sentence that was. Boxing is a great sport but a silly business.
Ramirez picked up that bauble in August with a seventh-round stoppage of the 19-2 Jerome Pampellone. The 33-year-old hails from Venezuela but mostly fights these days out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the home base of his promoter, Eye of the Tiger Management. He’ll be headlining this show at the Casino de Montreal.
Richards, 19-1 (4 KOs), is a 33-year-old who lives in London, England. He was previously a super middleweight prospect who gave a pair of previously unbeaten fighters their first defeats, both via split decision: Lennox Clarke in 2019 and Carlos Gongora in 2021. Alas, Richards saw his own undefeated run come to an end in June 2024, when he was the victim of a sixth-round TKO at the hands of the 18-2-1 Steed Woodall. Richards spent 15 months away before returning this past September, coming in at 181lbs and shutting out a 2-22-2 foe.
The undercard will spotlight many of Eye of the Tiger’s up-and-comers, including lightweight Dzmitry Asanau, 11-0 (5 KOs), who will face Carlos Ramos, 18-3-1 (10 KOs). Light heavyweight Mehmet Unal, 14-0 (12 KOs), will take on Altin Zogaj, 17-0 (9 KOs). And junior welterweight Wyatt Sanford, 5-0 (2 KOs), will step in against Alexis Gabriel Camejo, 10-5-2 (1 KO).
All three of those prospects competed in the Olympics: Asanau in 2016 and 2021, Unal in 2016 and Sanford in 2024, where he won a bronze in the lightweight tournament.
Friday, February 6: Christian Medina vs. Adrian Curiel (DAZN)
The broadcast begins at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (1 a.m. GMT).
Medina, 26-4 (19 KOs), is making his first defense of the WBO bantamweight title, which he won in September by upsetting Yoshiki Takei via fourth-round TKO.
You can discount three of the losses on Medina’s record. Three of them came very early on: one in his fourth pro bout in 2018; the others in 2019 in his 11th and 12th matches. All came within the first year and a half of his career. By August 2023, Medina had recovered to the point that he challenged Japanese contender Ryosuke Nishida. Medina lost a clear decision; Nishida went on to win a world title in his next fight.
All of that may have suggested that Medina had reached his ceiling. Medina ignored that suggestion, and now he is a world titleholder himself. The 25-year-old from Guadalajara, Mexico, will headline in his hometown for this event.
Curiel, 26-6-1 (5 KOs), is a 27-year-old from Ecatepec de Morelos, outside of Mexico City. He’s a former titleholder, briefly holding the IBF belt at 108lbs. With four losses on his record, Curiel took out unbeaten titleholder Sivenathi Nontshinga with a second-round knockout in November 2023. Three months later, Nontshinga regained his throne via 10th-round TKO. In June 2024, Curiel suffered his second straight defeat, losing a technical decision to former flyweight titleholder Sunny Edwards. Curiel has won two since against limited opposition.
Saturday, February 7: Richard Johnson vs. Gilbert Venegas Jnr (BXNG TV)
The broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time (11:30 p.m. GMT).
Johnson, 8-0 (4 KOs), is a 20-year-old junior middleweight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Venegas, 11-2 (7 KOs), is a 31-year-old Iowa resident. Venegas is fighting for the first time since August 2022, when he was stopped in the fourth round by middleweight prospect Fiodor Czerkaszyn. This show takes place at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City in New Jersey.
Saturday, February 7: Lyubo Pinchuk vs. Nick Kisner (Combat Sports Now)
The broadcast begins at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (1 a.m. GMT).
Pinchuk and Kisner are both cruiserweights who have dipped their toes into heavyweight. This fight is listed on BoxRec as a heavyweight bout. Pinchuk, 16-4-2 (10 KOs), is a 29-year-old originally from Ukraine and now living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Kisner, 23-8-1 (7 KOs), is a 35-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland. This show takes place at Pittsburgh's Grand Hall at the Priory.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
