Raymond Ford (15-0-1, 8 KOs) stopped Otabek Kholmatov (12-1, 11 KOs) by technical knockout in the twelfth round in the main event of the evening in Verona, winning the vacant WBA World featherweight title.
Kholmatov started the fight better, but the American began to make up for the losses in the later rounds. Eventually, with 7 seconds left in the final round, the fight was stopped after a series of unanswered punches from the American.
Kholmatov was leading on the notes of the two judges until the fight was stopped (106-103) and losing by a third (105-104). Ford announced that he was going to leave the title vacant and move up to the second welterweight division.
On the same evening, Luis Alberto Lopez (30-2, 17 KOs) defeated Reya Abe (25-4-1, 10 KOs) by eighth-round technical knockout to defend his IBF featherweight title. The fight turned out to be one-sided, and the Mexican thus defended the International Boxing Federation belt for the third time.
