43
Ford steps on the gas to post boxing victory
By Greg Gulas
CAMPBELL
At 24, Alliance native and Cleveland Golden Gloves champion Ryizeemmion “Johnny” Ford doesn’t like to chase opponents around the ring.
After the first round in which he and opponent Ofacio Falcon tried to get a feel for one another, Ford (28-22) took command of the final two rounds to defeat Falcon in the main event of Saturday’s All-Star Boxing Show 2 card at St. Lucy’s Palermo Center.
It was the 12th win in the last 15 fights for the Aviator graduate.
“The game plan was to feel each other out in the first round, but still stay busier than him,” Ford said. “In the second and third rounds, I needed to stay focused and aggressive, cut the ring in half and just shoot more of my sharp, short punches.
“It was really difficult that first round because he kept moving around the ring and stayed up against the ropes,” Ford said. “I got in a few hard shots, but they were hard to land due to his dancing around.”
Falcon, a Bronx, N.Y., native and New York-Metro Golden Gloves champion, failed to climb to .500 and fell to 11-13 overall in 24 amateur fights.
In the opening fight of the 13-bout card, Jack Ketchum (4-2) of Knoxville scored a victory on points in a 96-pound pairing over Lorain’s Christian Rivera (0-2) for his third consecutive victory.
“He was shorter than me so I stayed long,” Ketchum said. “I knew that he was going to go for the body and he hit me pretty good several times, but my strategy to go after him from the opening bell paid off.”
Shackbel Torres of Lorain improved to 3-4 by spoiling Izik Collins’ debut at 128 pounds while in a 148-pound pairing, Seth Shaffer won his debut over New Castle, Pa., native Chris Hill.
The only TKO was registered by Canfield’s Nate Cordova (3-1), a Pontiac, Mich., native who fights out of Burnside A.C. in Struthers. He stopped Nate Young (3-2) of Toronto just 56 seconds into the opening round.
“My coaches told me to throw jabs to the face, destroy the body and I just followed that with punches to the head,” Cordova said. “I wanted to get a good start and it turned into my fastest win.”
The lone female bout had Shannon Potter of Akron even her record at 2-2 with a victory over Tori Ward (0-2) of Youngstown’s Downtown Boxing Club.
“I just stayed in tight, worked my 1-2 jab and hook and kept saying to myself ‘don’t give up,’” Potter noted. “Anyone with the guts to get into the ring is a tough opponent as far as I am concerned.”
Caleb Waggoner (Toronto Board’s B.C.) won for the sixth time in seven outings with a victory over Lorain’s Luis Burgos (2-6) at 124 pounds while a 163 pound pairing had Brian McElrath of Akron move to 19-15 with a second round retirement of Sklyer Robiscik (2-9) of Aliquippa, Pa.
A super heavyweight scrap had Jesse Villers of Randy Jarvis, B.C., move to 2-0 with a victory over Danny Infante (0-2) of Burnside A.C. At 155 pounds, Drew Smith (10-9) of Salem B.C. won by points over Carl Polk of Cleveland.
Also posting wins were Cleveland’s Armond Richards (22-6) at 140 pounds, Chuckie Bizzarro (3-2) of Erie , Pa., in a 153-pound scrap and Downtown B.C. fighter Tiarus Wolfe (2-0) at 189 pounds.