Newly-crowned world champion Raymond Ford is set for his next on June 1 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he faces British contender Nick Ball. The 12-round bout is feaured on the card headlined by Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol.
Undefeated Raymond Ford (15-0-1, 8 KOs) landed the vacant WBA featherweight title in March in Verona, NY, when he stopped Otabek Kholmatov in the 12th round. Going into the final round the Camden, New Jersey native was down on two of the judges’ scorecards. The 25-year-old southpaw makes his second ring appearance for the year and first world title defense.
Unbeaten Nick Ball (19-0-1, 11 KOs) also goes through the ropes for the second time in 2024 and makes his second attempt to become champion. The 27-year-old native of Liverpool, England fought Mexico’s WBC 126 lbs titleholder Rey Vargas to a split draw in March in Riyadh, dropping the latter twice along the way.
In the main event, Montreal, Canada-based unified WBC, WBO and IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) and Kyrgyzstan’s WBA 175 lbs titleholder Dmitriy Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs) battle it out for the undisputed title. In the co-main event, British Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) and Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 14 KOs) of Croatia go head to head at heavyweight.
Among other Beterbiev vs Bivol undercard bouts, former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) of Tuscaloosa, Alabama goes up against Bloomfield, New Jersey-based Zhilei Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) of China. Plus, Austin Williams (16-0, 11 KOs) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and British Hamzah Sheeraz (19-0, 15 KOs) clash at light heavyweight. In addition, London’s light heavyweight Craig Richards (18-3-1, 11 KOs) squares off against Willy Hutchinson (17-1, 13 KOs) of Scotland.