{"id":63228,"date":"2025-08-13T04:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T04:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/63228\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T04:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T04:39:08","slug":"stevenson-calls-ford-one-of-worlds-best-before-nova-bout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/63228\/","title":{"rendered":"Stevenson calls Ford one of world’s best before Nova bout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raymond Ford<\/a> is universally respected in boxing circles.
He’s ranked No. 3 by the WBC, No. 4 with the WBA and IBF and No. 5 in the WBO’s 130-pound rankings, but WBC lightweight world champion Shakur Stevenson<\/a> doesn’t believe the former featherweight titleholder gets enough credit. <\/p>\n

“Ray Savage one of the best fighters in the world,” Stevenson wrote on his social media account. <\/p>\n

Come Saturday, the man nicknamed ‘Savage’ will get a chance to prove he’s as good as Stevenson says. <\/p>\n

As part of the Moses Itauma-Dillian Whyte undercard on DAZN PPV<\/a>, Ford will face one-time title challenger Abraham Nova<\/a>. Originally, the 26-year-old was slated to face Anthony Cacace<\/a>, The Ring’s No. 3-rated divisional contender, before he withdrew with a back injury<\/a>.
Nova (24-3-1, 17 KOs) isn’t a pushover but has endured a tough stretch in recent years after suffering consecutive defeats by WBC beltholder O’Shaquie Foster<\/a> and Andres Cortes, being held to a 10-round split draw with Humberto Galindo in November. <\/p>\n

Although he forced a stoppage after three rounds against German Ivan Meraz in June, Ford isn’t worried about anything the 31-year-old is bringing to the table. <\/p>\n

Since losing his WBA 126-pound title to Nick Ball<\/a> on Saudi shores in June 2024, he’s looked sharp in the weight class above.
Thomas Mattice failed to win a single round against Ford, who outboxed him during a 10-round affair<\/a> in their April 12 matchup on the Jaron Ennis-Eimantas Stanionis undercard.<\/p>\n

Although their matchup isn’t big, Stevenson remains heavily invested. He believes once Ford (17-1-1, 8 KOs) shows up and shows out, the Camden, New Jersey southpaw will gain even more fans. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Raymond Ford is universally respected in boxing circles.He’s ranked No. 3 by the WBC, No. 4 with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[33647,2560,33646,7880,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-63228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-abraham-nova","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-raymond-ford","11":"tag-shakur-stevenson","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}