Tevin Farmer wants to face the first fighter to beat Joseph Diaz Jr. next, once he defeats Diaz on Thursday night in Miami.
The IBF junior lightweight champion called out Gary Russell Jr. on a recent conference call. Unlike lots of featherweights and junior lightweights, Farmer is more than willing to box the WBC 126-pound champion in what would be the biggest fight of Farmer’s career.
When a reporter suggested a Russell-Farmer fight for some point in the future, Farmer corrected him.
“I don’t like the fact that he said, ‘a future fight.’ That’s the next fight,” Farmer said. “It can be the next fight, especially if all the business is correct. That’s gotta be the next fight. Ain’t no future fight. He fight [February] 8th, and I fight [January] 30th. After that, that fight has to happen in April or May. He keeps saying a lot of people avoiding him and he ‘The Boogeyman’ and all this bullcrap. Well, I’m wanna fight ‘The Boogeyman’ next.”
Philadelphia’s Farmer (30-4-1, 6 KOs, 1 NC) is listed as a 2-1 favorite to beat Diaz (30-1, 15 KOs) in a 12-round, 130-pound championship match DAZN will stream from Meridian at Island Gardens as part of the Demetrius Andrade-Luke Keeler undercard.
Russell (30-1, 18 KOs), of Capitol Heights, Maryland, is scheduled to make a mandatory defense of his WBC featherweight title against Mongolia’s Tugstsogt Nyambayar (11-0, 9 KOs) two weeks later. Showtime will air the Russell-Nyambayar match February 8 from PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Even if they both won relatively easily, Farmer’s preference for fighting Russell in April or May seems extremely unlikely. Russell, 31, has boxed only four times since he knocked out Mexico’s Jhonny Gonzalez in the fourth round of their March 2015 fight to win the WBC featherweight title.
Facing Farmer also would require Russell to move up from 126 pounds to 130, a jump Russell has said he would’ve made to fight Gervonta Davis, before Davis moved up to lightweight. Farmer, 29, hasn’t competed at the featherweight limit of 126 pounds in six years.
Lou DiBella, Farmer’s co-promoter, would love to see a Russell-Farmer fight, no matter when it would take place.
“Tevin’s always been willing to fight the best,” DiBella said. “There’s no question Gary Russell Jr. is an incredibly talented guy. But I think Tevin fights more in four months than Gary’s fought in four years. I’m being facetious, but look, he’s one of the best guys out there. Tevin’s never ran away from anybody. If the money’s right and the fight is gonna get the attention and promotion it deserves, I know – I’ll let Tevin answer it. But I’ve got a champion that has never walked away or ran from or avoided any skilled fighter or anybody deserving of a big fight.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.