Page 23 - Boxing News Magazine (January 2020)

ed Zone intensity being in the ring compared to the cage.” to stay away
record
a
As a
artist,
mixed
martial
Ford
accumulated
of
16-5, competing in all the major organisations outside the UFC
and fighting names such as Jake Shields, Douglas Lima, Karo
Parisyan and Pete Spratt. He then retired in 2014.
part of
has always been
Ford’s life.
meanwhile,
Boxing,
Canadian
lightweight champion
was a
Al,
who
His father,
shared the ring with Aaron Pryor and Ray Mancini, and often
Ryan
teach
the basics,
much
to the disapproval
he would
him
who was desperate for
of
Ryan’s mother,
from the sport and its dangers. She got her way, too. Ford’s
when
parents divorced
he was under her roof, the rules were quite clear: there was
inhabit the same dirty
as her
no way
her
world
ex-husband. boy would he was just four and, for as long as
Photos: JOE CAMPOREALE & SARAH STIER/USA TODAY SPORTS But then, in 2003, Ford participated in an armed robbery
home invasion and everything changed. First, he went to jail.
Then, while locked up, he analysed the direction in which
MONEY-MAKER:
Masvidal [left] has his life was heading and, in the process, stumbled upon
been vocal about The Ultimate Fighter reality television series. It wasn’t quite
pursuing a ight boxing, but it was close – close enough.
with Canelo “At first I wanted to box when I got out, but The Ultimate
Fighter came out as I was serving my sentence and it was
such a big thing,” he said. “I thought, ‘Man, maybe I’ll do this
instead.’
“I got out and within two weeks had my first MMA fight.
I won by knockout in the second round. It was my journey into
MMA from that point on.”
It later ended, this journey, for two reasons: one, because
Ford had broken his arm three times, twice in training and
once during a fight, and, two, because the time suddenly felt
right to continue the legacy of his father. “I just sat down with
my wife and a couple of my good friends and said, ‘You know
what? I think it’s time to go to the roots, go to boxing, what’s
in my blood,’” recalled Ford, 17-5 in his pro boxing career and
recently seen giving Joshua Buatsi a decent test in London.
Marcus Davis, a former fighter known as the “Irish Hand
Grenade”, went the other way, starting in boxing before
eventually making his name in mixed martial arts.
“MMA is the purest form of legal fighting available,” said
Davis, who turned pro as a boxer in 1993 and, competing
primarily in Boston, compiled a 17-1-2 record in seven years.
“I see myself as a warrior and fighting in MMA was the best
way to express myself. I’m not a natural boxer. I’m not a
natural mixed martial artist. I’m just a natural fighter – I was
born to fight.
“Making the transition from boxing to mixed martial arts
in 2002 was a long and arduous process. Once I identified
the issues at hand it took me about seven months of total
dedication to the training to get to where I wanted to be.
“When I boxed, I only did my boxing training and sparring
along with running. As an MMA fighter you train in several
disciplines of fighting – striking arts and grappling arts. You
also do stuff like weight training and plyometrics. It really
is the ultimate form of multitasking. If you ease up on one
aspect of training, I guarantee that’s the area that will get
exploited when it comes time to fight.”
Davis, like most who enter MMA from a striking background,
was immediately pigeonholed. He was, as far as purists were
concerned, good only for standing up and throwing hands.
Get him on the floor, they said, and the story will be different.
He will panic. He will drown. He will be choked out. But they
were wrong. Davis, 22-11 in MMA, would in fact go on to ➤
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
IS THE PUREST FORM
OF LEGAL FIGHTING
AVAILABLE”
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