The composed Raymond Ford won a 10-round decision over Abraham Nova, earning the verdict on all three judges’ scorecards.
The slick and often impressive Ford, a southpaw from Camden, New Jersey, won by margins of 96-94 and the more logical 97-93 and 97-93 to improve to 18-1-1 (8 KOs).
Nova, 24-4-1 (17 KOs), born in Puerto Rico and formerly fighting out of Albany in upstate New York, had replaced Ford’s original opponent, Ireland’s Anthony Cacace.
And Nova caught the former featherweight champion with two right hands near the end of the first round. Ford, who had come in marginally over the junior-lightweight limit at Friday’s weigh-in, however, was quick, sharp, and landed rapid counters.
Sporting orange trunks depicting Tom and Jerry – a nod to the recent mandate of Saudi Arabia’s boxing powerhouse Turki Alalshikh of wanting fights with more action – he opened up more in the second, when catching Nova with a right hook and a left uppercut to the body on the inside having pivoted off his lead foot.
By the third Ford’s speed with his counters had made Nova more reluctant, although Nova did more in the session’s second half.
Ford was aggressive in the opening minute of the next, and he worked his opponent’s body more, but Nova would not be deterred and enjoyed some success with Ford on the ropes.
Even then, the 26-year-old Ford managed to make room to land his own shots with his back to the strands.
It was an engaging contest but the his work was smoother and his defense sufficiently tight. Whenever Nova threw his bigger shots, he was a step behind Ford; he was loading up too much and giving Ford too much time to either block or get out of the way.
There was a disorganized look about Nova, 31, after a heavy pair of hooks – a left and then a right – from Ford in the sixth.
They spoke to one another in the seventh. Nova tried to attack, but Ford was content to ride out what came his way and to pick his moments to return fire.
Nova had his moments in the eighth; he couldn’t turn the tide in the ninth and in the 10th he was still pitching with big right hands and heavier shots but Ford was too neat and composed – ducking under a big right and landing a lead right hook with 10 seconds to go before being awarded the decision.
Mohamed Alakel, already booked to fight on the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-Terence Crawford promotion in September in Las Vegas – and instead training with Abel Sanchez – managed to dismiss India’s Yumnan Santosh Singh in a round in the first fight of the bill in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia headlined by Moses Itauma-Dillian Whyte.
Singh was on the defensive from the start and covered up while Alakel got his jab working and soon started raking the Indian with right hands.
After 2.26 of the first, Alakel cracked Singh with two right hands and the Indian crumbled. Singh complained that he had been hit on the back of the head, but they looked to be on top of his cranium. Regardless, he stayed down and Riyadh’s Alakel, 24, wheeled away to celebrate, performing a backwards somersault off the top rope.
It was the first stoppage win of Alakel’s career, improving him to 5-0 (1 KO), and the first stoppage loss of the 30-year-old Singh’s; he drops to 3-7 (1 KO).
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