Farmer Finally Captures a World Title:

Farmer Captures World Title:

By Gary Kittilsen

Tevin Farmer joins fellow Philadelphian Bernard Hopkins as not only a world champion from the historic fighting city but as a world champ that lost their pro debut. In an era where fighters cling to their “0” guys like Tevin Farmer are a rarity.

Farmer, the newly minted IBF Super Featherweight champion, didn’t just lose his pro debut he has lost four times in his young professional career. Farmer has had a wild ride to becoming world champion. He won just four of his first eight fights and by the spring of 2012 Farmer’s record was a less than stellar 4-3-1 and had decided to rededicate himself and give boxing one last chance. He put together three consecutive highly impressive victories before running into undefeated Puerto Rican prospect Jose Pedraza.

Farmer who put together a solid performance was stopped in the final round of the scheduled 8 rounder. Pedraza was a mega-prospect that won a Silver medal in the 2008 Olympic games, who was being primed for a world title shot. It was perhaps this loss that propelled Farmer, it put the fight world on notice, despite his then record of 7-4-1, Tevin Famer was a force to be reckoned with and Farmer would live up to his new found reputation.

Farmer, put together 18 straight victories over increasingly difficult competition including a career-changing victory in which he outclassed highly regarded Ukraine prospect Ivan Redkach. With the win over Redkach, Farmer was on his way to scoring a world title shot and he made promoter Lou Dibella look like a genius for rolling the dice and investing money in a 7-4-1 journeyman.

While in line for a title shot in 2017, the Philly fighter faced another major setback, a career-threatening setback that didn’t happen in the ring but outside of it. Farmer was shot in the hand while trying to break up an altercation that occurred at a birthday party. According to Lou DiBella, Farmer tried to disarm the gunmen and was shot in the hand while his brother was grazed with a bullet near his eye. The bullet passed clean through Farmer’s hand without breaking any bones.

The injury side-lined Farmer for several months but wasn’t going to keep him down for good. Farmer returned to a world title shot in December against Japanese contender Kenichi Ogawa at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for the vacant IBF Super Featherweight strap. It appeared to almost everyone that Farmer easily out-boxed the game Japanese fighter and won the overwhelming majority of the rounds and had completed the amazing career comeback and went from journeymen to world champion in just a few years. Unfortunately for Farmer, he was cheated twice, first by the judges who somehow scored a split decision against Farmer awarding the decision to Ogawa. Just days later we found out that Farmer wasn’t just cheated by the judges but was also cheated by Ogawa, who tested positive for androstanediol (synthetic testosterone). The loss was later overturned to a No Decision and Farmer was given another shot to fight for the vacant strap.

Farmer had one last shot to fight for a world title. This time he had to travel halfway across the world and travel to Australia to fight hometown hero Billy Dib. This time Farmer removed any room for doubt out landing and outworking Dib badly.

The quicker and younger Farmer used lateral movement and sharp counters to stop the attack of Dib. The Australian worked hard to get inside but rarely was able to get inside and when he did his efforts were mainly ineffective. Farmer, not known for his punching power floored Dib in the ninth and nearly stopped him. Farmer was on cruise control after that, sweeping the last three rounds and taking the unanimous decision.

Finally, the fringe contender from Philly, who just wouldn’t quit and kept getting better had finally done it. Tevin Farmer is a world champ.