City fighter wants rematch after loss
Edmonton boxer seeking a rematch after losing by decision in Germany
Local boxer Ryan Ford recognizes the difficulty of getting on the right end of a decision in an opponent’s backyard.
So despite putting in an excellent performance against Turkish boxer Avni Yildirim in Cologne, Germany, last weekend, Ford came up short in his quest for the WBC International Super Middleweight Title.
Ford, 36, lost in a 12-round unanimous decision with the judges scoring the bout 116-112, 115-113, 117-112 in favour of Yildirim, 26, who fights out of Germany.
“I’ve had a chance to watch the fight about 100 times,” said Ford, who is back home in Edmonton. “It was a close fight, but ... I deserved that win. But that’s the thing, going on the road and fighting a guy with their promoter’s promotion and them fighting in their hometown, you most likely have to knock ’em out to win.”
The bout was Ford’s third in hostile territory in the past six months. He fought in Russia twice, losing an unanimous decision in December to Fedor Chudinov for the vacant WBA International Super Middleweight Title and then losing to Andrey Sirotkin for the WBA Intercontinental Super Middleweight Title in March.
“I was going into hostile territory and it ended up with me losing the decision, but I was very happy,” Ford said. “Compared to my last few fights, I was on another level. I was hitting him with crisp combinations that were landing flush. I was mixing it up with my speed, my tempo, my power. I just fell short to the judges. It was nothing on my performance. It’s so hard because you wonder what these judges are watching, but that’s boxing.”
The bout was Yildirim’s second title defence. Yildirim (19-1) defeated Mexican Marco Antonio Periban a year ago to win the vacant title.
“He’s ranked No. 5 in the WBC and he’s a tough guy,” Ford said. “He came to fight, unlike my last fight where the guy just came to run around. This guy stood with me and we fought.
“The beginning of the fight you get in there and feel each other out, but I believe that I won some of those early rounds. Then in the later rounds, it was all me. I hurt him back in the 11th round with a right hand and followed up with some combinations where he wasn’t all there in the last part of those later rounds.”
Ford felt he was never hurt by Yildirim and believed he controlled the bout in the latter rounds.
“He did hit me, but was usually just one punch or a two-punch combination, but there was not one time that I felt that I was in trouble in the fight,” Ford said. “The one or two times he did capitalize and hit me, I would hit him back with two or three punches.”
Losing in a decision to a hometown fighter, Ford wants another shot at the title. Whether Yildirim grants it, remains to be seen.
“I want a rematch,” Ford said. “My last three fights have been against guys who are the top 20 in the world and my first fight I fought a former world champion in Chudinov and that was more of a learning experience for me. My last fight in Russia against Sirotkin I got robbed in that fight.
“This fight too, it was a better fight than that Sirotkin fight because the guy actually fought me, but I lost again.”
Back on familiar ground, Ford intends to take time off and spend it with his family. And while he would like to fight in North America again, he’s not opposed to returning to Europe.
“I’m a fighter and I’ve been told I’m a throwback fighter, a guy that comes to fight,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’m taking a risk going there because things like this happen. But also too, without a risk there is no reward, so I’m willing to take those risks. It’s what I do to feed my family. My coach tells me I need to be proud of myself for the accomplishment that I’ve made in two years, going 36 rounds in six months with three of the top 20 guys in the world.”