By Jake Donovan
While watching their client trade words with super featherweight titlist Tevin Farmer on social media, the team behind Joseph Diaz Jr. have remained hard at work to find a way for their fighter to trade fists in the ring.
In a recent interview with BoxingScene.com, Farmer (30-4-1, 6KOs) wondered aloud how Diaz could announce his plans to return to the ring in September when he was offered a title shot in November.
“I thought we’d be fighting JoJo Diaz in November,” Farmer claimed, still taken aback by the events which have followed his online offer. “I told him I’d fight him next in November. So how the f*** you gonna decide you now fighting in September? I don’t get it.”
The answer is simple, as far as Diaz and his handlers are concerned; claiming through Twitter that a fight is on the table is not quite the same as negotiating a fight through the proper channels.
“Tevin Farmer’s camp and promoter haven’t made any offer to fight JoJo Diaz,” Eric Gomez, president of Golden Boy Promotions told BoxingScene.com in response to such a claim. “It’s simply not true.”
Farmer— a Philadelphia (Pa.)-bred southpaw—has been angling for a major fight ever since turning away the second of back-to-back mandatory title defenses in a 12-round win over Guillaume Frenois this past July. The win marked his fifth title fight in a span of just under a year, racking up four title defenses since claiming the strap with a wide points win over Billy Dib last August on the road in Australia.
His last two defenses were against sanctioned mandatory challengers, beating previously unbeaten Jono Carroll in March prior to outpointing France’s Frenois. Wedged in between has been plenty of back-and-forth with California’s Diaz (29-1, 15KOs), mostly through social media but also face to face this past May.
Their encounter came prior to Diaz—a 2012 U.S. Olympian—scoring his latest win, a 7th round knockout of Freddy Fonseca. He’s now claimed three straight victories since falling short in a featherweight title bid versus Gary Russell Jr. last May, serving as his lone career loss.
As there remains little hope in sight of Farmer entering a title unification fight with another longtime rival in unbeaten Gervonta Davis, the hope was for a clash with Diaz to materialize. Confusion arose when the 26-year old contender announced he will be returning to the ring in September, declaring the opportunity as means to put him one step closer to a title shot.
It also guarantees his remaining active while awaiting a physical offer—or at least an open line of dialogue with Farmer’s handlers—to bring this grudge match from online to in the ring.
“We are very open to the fight if the money is right,” insists Gomez.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox