In football (soccer) there is an accepted wisdom that if you intend to do something rash, dirty or dumb make sure you do it early, ideally in the opening minutes. That way there is a far greater chance that the referee will take a more lenient view of the incident for fear of upsetting the crowd, who would rather not have their match spoiled by an early intrusion by an official.

After all, at that stage everybody is still warming up and settling down. Mistakes can therefore be forgiven and benefit of the doubt, depending on the severity of the “crime”, should be considered. Nobody, especially a neutral, wants to see an early bath or uneven teams and often this will play on a referee’s mind whenever they are forced to make a decision in the opening minutes. As a result, a player will have to really earn a yellow card to get one – even truer of a red – and we, as fans, become accustomed to seeing a customary “ticking off” in favour of something either decisive or final. 

In boxing, where there is less room to wriggle and of course danger at every turn, officials do not have this same luxury. Conversely, they must judge a boxer’s actions with only safety in mind and they must come down hard on one for doing something illegal, knowing the ramifications of getting it wrong are not the same as erring on a football pitch. 

Or so we thought. 

On Saturday night in Liverpool, the image of Nick Ball kicking his opponent, TJ Doheny, essentially “off the ball” was the sort of action for which any footballer would expect to receive their marching orders, regardless of when in the game the incident took place. However, in boxing, a sport of hands and not feet, Ball was in fact given no more than a telling off by the referee, Michael Alexander, and sent on his merry way, much to the shock of everybody watching in the arena and at home. Indeed, it was tough to know at that point which was the stranger thing to witness: the act itself or the reaction to it. 

The act itself, which became clear on TV only via replays, was shocking enough, with Ball using his left foot to boot Doheny in the back of the leg after escaping from a “head lock” at the end of round one. Frustrated, no doubt, Ball also knew as soon as he had let fly that it was wrong, hence the sheepish look he gave both his coaches and the referee as he made his walk back to the corner. Like us, he had no idea what was to happen next, but perhaps, like us, he feared the worst.

Initially, before seeing any replays, it appeared as though Doheny had injured himself. He struggled to walk, it seemed, and it was hard, when watching him struggle, to forget both his age (38) and how an injury had prematurely ended the Irishman’s fight against Naoya Inoue in September. Then, however, we saw the replays of the kicking incident and understood that Doheny was likely exaggerating his response to what had happened in order to have it acknowledged and maybe even punished. In that respect, the performance was merely an old pro’s trick. It was also unnecessary. After all, one cursory glance at the replay and it was quite apparent that Ball had kicked Doheny in the back of the leg. The only question now was the very same question on Ball’s mind: what happens next?  

At first, there looked to be only one option: Ball would and should be disqualified. In a sport of hands, he had used his feet to kick a man and this, irrespective of any context, should surely always result in the harshest possible punishment. 

Whether Ball himself expected a disqualification is anyone’s guess, but at the start of round two he approached the referee and his opponent wearing the same sheepish expression he had taken back to the corner with him after the incident and tried as best he could to make light of what had happened in the company of both. He knew, as we all did, what could potentially follow. 

Yet the referee, to Ball’s relief, seemingly had other ideas. Keen to keep the peace, he let the two featherweights proceed as though nothing had happened, leaving us all confused as to what constitutes a foul and which fouls are worthy of disqualification in 2025. This confusion then only increased when you realised that not only had Ball escaped disqualification but he had not even had points docked or been put in some kind of deficit as a consequence of his idiocy. In fact, he had basically got away with it scot-free, with his single bit of punishment that night arriving in round nine when deducted a point for “throwing” Doheny to the canvas with his left arm. By then, of course, the fight was as good as over. By then Doheny’s right eye was almost shut and the rounds, which had mostly been dominated by Ball, were starting to follow the same pattern and becoming harder and harder to watch.

In the end, Doheny was pulled out after 10 rounds and Ball, 22-0-1 (13), retained his WBA featherweight title for the second time. And yet, for all Ball’s good work, and for all the rounds that passed, it was still impossible to shake the image of him kicking Doheny after round one and not think about how things could have been so different had the referee taken a different view of what had happened. 

Quite the Sliding Doors moment, one can only assume Ball got away with it because it was something so unusual it took everybody involved by surprise. Add to that the fact that it occurred after just one completed round and it would have been very difficult for Alexander to effectively scrap the main event in Liverpool with the fans having seen only three minutes of action. Imagine the dismay. Imagine the uproar. 

Then again, should the timing of a foul and the status of the boxer guilty of it even be taken into consideration in such matters? If, for instance, Ball was not a WBA champion headlining this event in his hometown but was instead an Eastern European or South American brought over as an “opponent”, would the referee be quite so lenient and conscious of the repercussions of his decision? Or would he, in that scenario, act with a greater sense of detachment and treat the foul as an isolated incident stripped of any emotion?

Ultimately, only Michael Alexander, the man in charge, will know. But to not dock points, or make an example of Ball, is rather damning evidence against him and probably the biggest issue here. For while it is true that nobody wants to see Ball disqualified, and lose his unbeaten record, it is just as true to say that nobody wants to see an incident like that swept under the carpet and deemed an inconvenience rather than a key moment. If just for sanity’s sake, we needed to see footage of one boxer kicking another boxer followed by something – an action, preferably – to both confirm what we had seen and appropriately deal with it. Otherwise, without this action, you start to question what you have just watched. Boxing, in fact, becomes a different sport altogether. It becomes a sport of feet as well as hands. It becomes a sport where anything goes.