By Sean Jones: IBF super featherweight champion Tevin Farmer will be defending his title against #13 IBF fringe contender Francisco fonseca on the undercard of Saul Canelo Alvarez vs Rocky Fielding on December 15 on DAZN at Madison Square Garden in New York, according to Dan Rafael.
Farmer-Fonseca will likely wind up as the first fight of the televised portion of the Canelo vs. Fielding card. It’s probably not considered to be a competitive enough fight for it to be viewed as co-feature material.
Farmer (27-4-1, 6 KOs) is promoted by Lou DiBella and Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing USA. Hearn has wanted to setup a fight between Farmer and WBA Super World super featherweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, but he’s had zero luck in putting that fight together. It would be a bad idea for Farmer to face a talent like Gervonta though. Farmer is a good basic champion, but Gervonta is pretty special and likely would knock him out. Hearn wants the Farmer vs. Davis fight, but he might regret it if that fight is ever made.
Matching Farmer against Fonseca (22-1-1, 16 KOs) might be viewed as a disappointment to a lot of boxing fans, especially the ones that remember him getting knocked out by Gervonta in the 8th round last year on August 26, 2017. Fonseca fought Davis for the vacant International Boxing Federation 130 lb title, and he was completely over-matched. Davis dominated the fight util knocking out Fonseca in the 8th.
“Terms have been agreed to on both sides,” Farmrer’s promoter DiBella said to ESPN.com.
This will be the 28-yer-old Farmer’s third defense of his IBF title in 2018. In Farmer’s two previous title defenses, he’s beaten Billy Dib and James Tennyson. Farmer has been criticized by boxing fans for the weak level of his opposition and he’s likely to continue to take heat for the choice of bottom feeder Fonseca. Choosing a guy that was knocked out with ease by Gervonta Davis last year makes Farmer look bad. It’s not just that Farmer is fighting an another unknown guy in Fonseca, but he’s also fighting someone that was trounced by a much younger fighter than himself in 23-year-old Davis. Farmer has been busy, but he’s been facing weak opposition.
Canelo (50-1-2, 34 KOs) is coming off of a controversial 12 round majority decision win over Gennady Golovkin on September 15 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Despite the controversy over the decision, Canelo was given a monstrous 5-year, 11-fight, $365 million deal with DAZN. Canelo’s fight against Rocky Fielding will be his first of his new DAZN card. Canelo wants to win his third division world title, so he’s moving up to 168 to take on Fielding for the belt. Boxing fans wonder why Canelo is fighting Fielding, the champion that many considered to be the weak link among the belt holders at 168, rather than a better champion like Callum Smith. Canelo doesn’t plan on staying at 168 to defend the WBA title, if he wins it, against the contenders like Chris Eubank Jr. Canelo is expected to go back down to middleweight to defend his World Boxing Council title against a challenger that his promoters at Golden Boy will pick out for him next May. The two fighters that are being mentioned as possible options for Canelo is David Lemieux and Daniel Jacobs. Lemieux is fighting Tureano Johnson in the co-feature bout on the Canelo-Fielding card. That’s a pretty good sign that Lemieux will be Canelo’s opponent in May 2019 if he beats Johnson. That’s a big if for Lemieux, considering how vulnerable he’s looked lately. Tureano is a very solid fighter when healthy, and he’s got more than enough power and skills to beat Lemieux if he’s 100 percent.
With Farmer co-promoted by British promoter Eddie Hearn, it helps explain why he was matched against little known British fighter James Tennyson (22-3, 18 KOs) last month on October 20. Farmer easily knocked Tennyson out in the 5th round. It wasn’t much of a fight, which is why it’s doubly disappointing that Farmer is facing another weak opponent in Fonseca on December 15. Farmer has some skills, but he’s not distinguished himself to be in the same league as the top guys in the super featherweight division. Farmer is considered just a belt holder, and not someone that is talented enough to be viewed as THE champion at 130. For Farmer to take his career to that level, he’s going to need to stop facing mediocre contenders and instead face the better guys in the weight class. Just when that happens is unknown. It doesn’t look as if Farmer’s promoters are in a hurry to match him against quality guys.
The fans want to see Farmer step it up a level by facing Davis, Alberto Machado, Francisco Vargas, Miguel Berchelt, Miguel Roman, Rene Alvarado or Masayuki Ito. Farmer’s promoters could probably get some of those guys to face him, but they would possibly beat him, so that’s a good reason for why those fights likely won’t be happening anytime soon. Farmer is a decent champion, but he doesn’t appear to be as talented as Berchelt, Machado, Roman or Ito.
Farmer has past losses to Kamil Laszczyk, Jose Pedraza, Oscar Santana and Josh Bowles.
Farmer vs. Fonseca will be replacing IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev’s title defense against Joe Smith Jr. Beterbiev had a tough title defense recently against Callum Johnson in stopping him in the 4th round last month in October.
Fonseca, 24, has won his last three fights in beating Sandro Hernandez, Daniel Miranda and Joel Blanco. Those are journeyman level fighters.