Last Saturday’s Top Rank-promoted show saw the headliner, Mexican featherweight champion Luis Lopez, deliver in stupendous fashion as he stopped Japanese opponent Reiya Abe while on course to completing his third title defense. In the same division, a new champion also rose up as American contender Raymond Ford battled against Uzbeki fighter Otabek Kholmatov to eventually win the vacant WBA featherweight title. The event was held at the Turning Stone Casino & Resort in Verona, New York.
Raymond Ford (15-0-1, 8 KO’s) and Otabek Kholmatov (12-1, 11 KO’s) were respectively ranked #2 and #1 on the WBA’s featherweight ranking boards prior to their fight, making them the ideal candidates to vie over the vacant WBA title that had been relinquished last year by British fighter Leigh Wood (28-3, 17 KO’s) when he moved up to super featherweight/junior lightweight.
With both fighters pitting their undefeated records against each other, the high-stakes match was expected to be highly-competitive; which became a reality when the match actually occurred, but the bout also exceeded expectations to be worthy of being nominated as a “Fight of the Year” candidate as the two fighters fought an extremely close bout that ended in dramatic fashion.
Ford and Kholmatov were evenly-matched since the beginning of the round, and blows weren’t spared as they exchanged plenty of times, splitting many rounds between them. The high presence of skill was evident during their bout, compliments of their prevalent amateur backgrounds, yet both fighters did not shy away from being aggressive when needed.
Throughout the earlier rounds, Otabek Kholmatov seemed to edge those rounds as he showed how he achieved a high KO ratio of approximately 91% to be known as one of the most dangerous punchers, and his front foot approach forced Ford to seek answers on the back foot. While Ford caught a lot of blows early on, and had a couple of scares that suggested he was close to being finished by the Uzbeki, the American weathered through Kholmatov’s onslaughts and was capable of launching his own, which tipped the scales slightly in his favor.
To both fighters’ credit, their willingness to risk themselves and engage with one another for a highly-entertaining bout that would be long remembered as more than a couple swing rounds occurred with both fighters channeling the utmost of their ability. However, it was Raymond Ford who would win the contest.
Despite suffering a cut in the eleventh round, a round that he seemed to clearly lose, Ford put up a tremendous performance in the last and twelfth round with it still being a coin toss on who would become the winner. Like the previous rounds, the last round was competitive and saw both Kholmatov and Ford have some success. However, during the last half-minute, Ford landed a hard uppercut that dazed Kholmatov and put the Uzbeki into trouble which resulted on Ford pouncing on him.
Though Kholmatov slipped as Ford hit on the gas pedal and increased his offensive, vulnerabilities had seemingly slipped in which Ford was determined to take advantage of in the closing seconds, again following after Kholmatov who was forced to retreat. With Kholmatov turning his back several times as Ford caught him with a couple of straight lefts and rights, Ford eventually cornered Kholmatov and forced the referee to intercede as Kholmtov was proving unable to answer any of Ford’s punches.
With just a couple of seconds left on the clock, the referee’s intervention ruled it a technical knockout victory for Ford who subsequently won the vacant WBA featherweight title in what was an extremely close match. Both fighters put up a tremendous performance, capitalized by the last-second stoppage victory for Ford who has now emerged as a new daunting champion for contenders and the other champions in the divisions alike.
The featherweight title bout between IBF champion Luis Alberto Lopez (30-2, 17 KO’s) and Reiya Abe (25-4-1, 10 KO’s) was much more one-sided as Abe proved unable to deal with Lopez’ power and stamina as he had to endure onslaught after onslaught without much being able to retaliate. With Luis Lopez realizing he had the upper hand early on, the Mexican champion was both patient and ferocious as he broke down Abe over each round.
By the eight round, Lopez was clearly ahead and Abe had been unable to make a difference as he had mostly relied on blocking or evading Lopez’ blows rather than actually engaging. As such, it was only a matter of time before the referee decided he could not witness such a one-sided display with Abe barely being able to muster up any effort and he stopped the match within the closing seconds of the first minute after Abe was again on the retreat and barely responding to Lopez’ offense.
Luis Lopez was declared the winner by technical knockout, retaining his IBF featherweight title for the third time of his career. With Ford recently having emerged as a champion in his own right and signed to Top Rank like Lopez himself, a future fight between the two might be on the cards with Lopez more than hinting at him wanting an opportunity to unify against any of the other three world champions in the division.
“I’ve told you guys time and time again, my dream is to unify the world titles at 126 lbs [featherweight],” Luis Lopez said during his post-match interview.
“But you know what? I’m willing to move up to 130 lbs. And I know Oscar Valdez and Liam Wilson will be fighting, and I’ll be taking that winner too.“
Oscar Valdez (31-2, 23 KO’s) and Liam Wilson (13-2, 7 KO;s) are currently set to fight later this month on March 29th in a non-title super featherweight bout where they will also main event. While their match has not yet been identified to be significant other than helping the winner move up the sanctioning bodies’ rankings, it is highly likely that Lopez’ attempt to call out the future winner is based on his desire to move up to 130 lbs and acclimate himself against a competent foe.
For now, Lopez remains the IBF champion but most realistically could face WBA champion Raymond Ford as he fought on the same card and is signed to the same company. WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas (36-1, 22 KO’s) will be facing British contender Nick Ball (19-0, 11 KO’s) this week on March 8th, thus the winner between them could also be a prospective opponent for Luis Lopez.
WBO champion Rafael Espinoza (24-0, 20 KO’s) could also be on the cards for Lopez following his upset win over Robeisy Ramirez (13-2, 8 KO’s) which resulted in the title switching hands from Ramirez to Espinoza, but there could be a chance of a rematch taking place between the two which would force Luis Lopez to await until a winner has emerged. Otherwise, Espinoza may be obliged to participate in a mandatory defense of his WBO title.
Either way, Top Rank now holds two champions at featherweight, courtesy of what was clearly a very successful night for the promotion with both champions now gearing up for their next challenge in their careers.
