Kholmatov started the fight better, but in the following rounds the American began to make up for his losses. Eventually, 7 seconds before the end of 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.