Joseph Diaz decisions Tevin Farmer to win IBF junior lightweight title!
After months of back and forth trash talk, the time to settle their differences has arrived! IBF junior lightweight champion Tevin “American Idol” Farmer (30-5-1, 6KOs) would be making his 6th title defense against 2012 US Olympian and former world title challenger Joesph “Jojo” Diaz (31-1, 15KOs).
After a less than exciting opening round, the second would get very interesting after a horrible cut opened over the left eye of Diaz due to an accidental head butt. The would be so severe that the ringside physician would pay close attention to it at the conclusion of the next few rounds.
It seemed the fight could be stopped any minute, but the A+ patch-job by Diaz’ cut man allowed the cut to not be much of a hindrance throughout the bout.
Also in the conclusion of that round, Farmer seemed to be favoring his right hand. He would shake it while receiving instructions from his trainer Chino Rivas to indicate that he may have injured it.
The action would continue to be scarce as Diaz would continue to press forward despite being badly cut. The normally elusive Farmer would have no answer for the pressure of the challenger.
Before the start of the sixth round, sensing trouble, Farmer’s trainer implored the champion to take the fight to his challenger! That seemed to be odd advice given that Diaz thrives off fighting on the inside.
Nevertheless Farmer followed those instructions that provided the best action of the fight. However, this would seem fruitless as the champion still neglected to use his jab to setup shots and often found himself confused and defenseless.
At certain points in the fight, commentator Sergio Mora thought something was wrong with Farmer’s eyes since he kept shaking his head and looking up at the clock during rounds. In reality, it was just shocking to the DAZN commentators that Diaz was successfully beating his foe to the punch and bullying him around the ring although he the champion claimed he would be the bully in this fight.
Sensing his reign as the champion coming to an end, Farmer started round twelve guns blazing only to be nullified and plagued by the same pressure he had no answer for throughout the fight.
After twelve rounds of “action”, Diaz would be crowned the new IBF champion by way of a unanimous decision. The scores were 116-112 and 115-113×2.
3kingsboxing.com also scored the fight 116-112 for Diaz.
This would be Farmer’s first loss since the devesating eighth round knockout to two-division champion Jose Pedraza in 2012 However, he may get an immediate chance to redeem himself as Diaz acknowledged that a possible rematch is in order!
By: Jerrell Fletcher
