IBF Super Featherweight champion, Tevin Farmer (28-4-1, 6 KOs), found himself in a great position for his title defense against a very game contender in Francisco Fonseca (22-2-1, 16 KOs).
Due to complications with dehydration, David Lemieux was forced to be pulled from the original co-main event bout and Farmer-Fonseca was moved up.
Farmer, who was making the third defense of his title, entered the opening round in typical Farmer fashion, great head movement and quick sharp shots to the body and head. The slick movements, coupled with solid pop shots won Farmer the early rounds but Fonseca never retreated at any point.
While Farmer tagged Fonseca with the more appealing shots, Fonseca would fire off stiff counters in return that kept Farmer honest.
Heading into the middle rounds, the fight remained competitive, but Farmer began to let his hands go more and more and Fonseca welcomed the challenge round to round.
Both fighters went tit for tat and at times, it wasn’t clear how some rounds could be scored. Exhaustion seemed to set in on both fighters but neither fighter had any plans of backing down.
The championship rounds were high volume action and the sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden ate it all up.
Farmer found his mark a few times in the late rounds and turned Fonseca’s head like a swivel but the Costa Rican fighter stubbornly pressed on and demonstrated tremendous heart.
In the end, the judges favored the champion and unanimously scored the bout 117-111 across the board.
“He was tough,” said Farmer. “We noticed early on that he was going to be tough in there so we made the necessary adjustments in there.”
An impressive win over a very willing and stubborn opponent in Fonseca only helped to boost the stock of Farmer who has been chasing the more high profile fights in his division.
The fight that most boxing fans have eyed is the bout with WBA champion Gervonta Davis (20-0, 19 KOs).
“Does he want to fight me,” asked Farmer. “We’ve been active. Gervonta needs to get active again and then he can come see me.”
Assuming Davis takes care of business in his matchup with Abner Mares in February, this fight could come to fruition in 2019.
