Unbeaten Nick Ball (20-0-1, 11 KOs) unseated WBA featherweight champion Raymond Ford (15-1-1, 8 KOs) on Saturday night, winning an exciting twelve round split decision at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Fight was a seesaw type of contest, with both fighters trading rounds throughout the fight. Ford, 25, seemed to let off in the final round, and was machine-gunned by the challenger Ball, who showed that he wanted it a little bit more a the end.
Ball’s Early Dominance
In the first six rounds, Ball was relentless with his attacks, getting in close by firing off blistering combinations to the head of the shelled-up Ford. The uppercuts that Ball landed snapped Ford’s head back repeatedly.
At the midpoint of the fight, Ford had sustained cuts around both eyes and swelling on his left cheek.
Ford’s Late Rally
Ford connected with two big shots in the seventh round that drove Ball back, busting his nose and causing blood to leak in rivers. Ball didn’t seem to care that he was bleeding and smiled as he attacked Ford.
Ball wasn’t as effective in rounds eight through ten as Ford took control of the contest.
Where Ford made a mistake was not fighting aggressively in the twelfth round, as the fight was on the line. Instead of fighting hard, Ford backed up frequently and did a lot of clinching, which gave the impression that he was just trying to survive.
The scores were 115-113, 115-113 for Ball, and 115-113 for Ford.
Ford didn’t fight hard enough in stretches of the fight to get the win. He started off slowly, allowing Ball to outwork him in the first four rounds of the fight.
The 25-year-old Ford fought well in the middle rounds, jabbing and catching Ball with some good shots to bust up his nose, but then he let off in the 12th round and gave the fight away.
I don’t know if it was the strain of making weight that left him unable to fight hard, but whatever it is, he’s going to have to fix that problem moving forward when he starts campaigning at super featherweight because those guys will feast on him with the way he’s fighting now.
Queensberry is now up 2-0 against Matchroom thus far in the 5 vs. 5 event.
