You barely need to watch it; the audio has everything you need.
Ryan Ford, a promising if controversial welterweight prospect, poured a few gallons of rocket fuel on the inaugural World Series of Fighting Canada card Friday night with an absolutely brutal flash knockout of Joel Powell.
The clean KO came only 53 seconds into the first round of the evening’s main event. With the win, Ford became the first welterweight champion for WSOF Canada, the North-facing offshoot of the World Series of Fighting promotion.
Out of nowhere, Ford fired a front kick that slammed home with a loud cracking sound right under Powell’s chin. The Edmonton, Alberta crowd immediately went wild.
Although the card went down on Feb. 21, it will not air until Feb. 28 because of Winter Olympics conflicts. In the United States, the card will be televised on the NBC Sports Network.
The win moved the 31-year-old Ford to 22-4 as a professional fighter. It was Ford’s sixth victory in a row and 10th in his last 11. He has also notched wins over fairly well-known fighters like Karo Parisyan, Luis Santos and Pete Spratt.
In 2003, Ford was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in a home invasion in Alberta. It is safe to say that incident hampered his MMA career and rendered him damaged goods in the eyes of many in and around the sport.
In 2011, Ford signed with Aggression MMA—which WSOF purchased in September and changed to WSOF Canada—after a protracted contract battle with Maximum Fighting Championship, another Canadian promotion. He also lost the second half of 2013 to a broken arm.
However, Ford now appears to be back on the straight and narrow. Ford twice competed in Bellator in 2012, going 2-0 under that banner with wins over Santos and Kyle Baker. Ford has not competed for Bellator since, and though he has previously indicated he is not overly interested in fighting again for Bellator, his reasons are murky.
Ford is presumably interested in putting past controversies behind him. Performances like Friday’s scintillating knockout will surely help him accomplish that.
Scott Harris writes about MMA, including fighter prospects, for Bleacher Report. Follow Scott on Twitter.
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