Allan "Al" Ford (born August 13, 1950) is a Canadian retired professional boxer.[1] He is a former CBF Lightweight Champion.
Ford made his debut as a professional boxer on October 20, 1967 (shortly after his seventeenth birthday), a 3rd round knockout win over Joe Hogue, who was also making his professional debut.[2] Two months later Ford defeated Ron Lyke by first-round knockout.[3] Ford fought an opponent with a winning record for the first time in his fifth fight, defeating 4-0 Mickey McMillan by split decision after eight rounds.[2] Ford would win his first 37 fights, picking up the vacant Canadian lightweight title with a win against 9-1 Julie Mandell and successful defending it several times.[2] Ford's first truly notable win was a 10-round decision against 30-3-1 Raul Montoya on October 27, 1970.[2]
The first loss of Ford's professional boxing career came against 24-22-5 Percy Hayles in Kingston, Jamaica in a contest for the Commonwealth (British Empire) lightweight title. Hayles outboxed Ford in a 15 rounder to take the decision.[2] Ford would continue to fight, winning his next four bouts before back-to-back loses to Ken Buchanan (points) and Alfonso Frazer (knockout).[2] Later Ford would lose a rematch with Percy Hayles by TKO and would finally lose his Canadian lightweight title to Johnny Summerhays in November 1975.[2] Ford was still winning more often than he was losing, but he lost to most of his notable opponents, including to 15-4 Ralph Racine, to 15-0 Rick Folstad in 1978, and to 17-0 Aaron Pryor in 1979.[2] Ford also fought Nick Furlano of Toronto for the Canadian junior welterweight title in 1979, losing by 14th-round knockout.[4] Near the end losses became more frequent, but Ford's impressive record continued to get him paydays. He would lose again to Summerhays in 1980 and dropped a decision to 17-0 Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini in 1981. According to witnesses at the time, Ford was involved in long street fight outside an Edmonton nightclub after a dispute around this time.[2] After losing six of his last seven fights, capped by a brutal decision loss to future prospect Michael Olajide on June 17, 1982, Ford finally retired with a final record of 55-19 with 19 wins coming by knockout.[2]
He is the father of retired mixed martial arts fighter and professional boxer Ryan Ford.[5]