ATLANTIC CITY – Raymond Ford eased to a unanimous decision victory over Thomas Mattice to remain in contention to challenge for the IBF junior-lightweight title.

Mexico’s Eduardo “Sugar” Nunez and Japan’s Masanori Rikiishi will contest the vacant title on May 28, and after consistently convincing against the overmatched Mattice at Boardwalk Hall, Ford is on course to challenge the winner.

The 26-year-old Ford’s career stalled when he lost for the first time, via split decision, to Nick Ball in June. He responded by moving up in weight and defeating Orlando Gonzalez in November, and on Saturday via three scores of 100-90 he defeated Mattice in another one-sided fight.

Against a bigger opponent Ford boxed admirably to largely dictate the pace and range at which they fought, making Mattice, 34, look one-dimensional.

A barrage of punches backed up Mattice in the first round, and after a jab to the body, Ford reached with a left hand that appeared at risk of being out of range and instead landed cleanly. A right hand thrown for similar range had an even more significant effect and would have unsettled the bigger fighter, who could no longer be confident in fighting at range.

Successive left hands and then a right to the body punished Mattice again in the second, and Mattice responded by attempting to taunt Ford, who in turn responded by landing another right hand that angered his opponent and encouraged him to move square on.

A left-right combination hurt Mattice again in the third, and when they then fought from close range he complained about being hit on the back of the head.

Ford’s comfort on the back foot was particularly inconvenient for Mattice, whose approach was amounting to little more than following him in straight lines.

A right hand in the fourth, on one of the rarer occasions Mattice was retreating, knocked him into the ropes and hurt him. A left-right landed and hurt Mattice in the fifth, and while he remained durable, the pace being set was unlikely to tire Ford before the final rounds.

It was in the sixth when Mattice landed a straight right hand that Ford absorbed convincingly, and also when Mattice’s left eye, increasingly, was swelling up.

In the ninth, when Ford’s activity reduced, Mattice had some success and responded to it with further trash talk. When Ford later countered him and Mattice then swung and missed, any sense of momentum vanished in the reminder that he was out of his depth. Victory at the final bell was not in question – the only detail to be decided was whether Ford had won by nine or 10 rounds.

Omari Jones earlier recorded the second victory of his two-fight professional career when he stopped William Jackson after only one minute and 47 seconds of their junior-middleweight contest.

The Olympic bronze medalist, less than a month after his professional debut, looked sharp but hadn’t yet thrown a punch with a sense of spite when a right-left combination to the 36-year-old Jackson’s body dropped him and he made no effort to return to his feet. If it appeared to be the right hand that most hurt Jackson, he showed nothing like the resistance Jones hoped for from him.

“I feel great about it,” the 22-year-old Jones said. “He’s a veteran, so we was looking to get some rounds. I was hoping [he’d get up], but he didn’t, so, hey, we’re on to the next one.”