ARLINGTON, Texas — Junior lightweight world titlist Tevin Farmer easily took care of mandatory challenger Guillaume Frenois on Saturday night, winning a lopsided unanimous decision in the co-feature of the Maurice Hooker-Jose Ramirez junior welterweight unification fight at the College Park Center on the campus of the University of Texas at Arlington.
The judges scored it 119-108, 116-111 and 116-111 for Farmer, who lost a point for a low blow in the 10th round. ESPN had Farmer winning 118-109 even though the crowd booed — a reaction not for the result, but because it wasn’t the most entertaining of fights.
“I came out here and I did what I had to do,” Farmer said. “I come in here and I keep winning. I did an excellent 12 rounds. I came in and fought all 12 rounds. I don’t care about the crowd, I came in here, I fight, I win, get my money, and I go back to my family. You love me or hate me. I think it was speed and my IQ that won me the fight.”
Farmer, wearing a tribute to the late Pernell Whitaker stitched across trunks,, thoroughly outboxed the slower Frenois as he won his fifth world title bout in 11 months — an extraordinarily busy schedule for a top boxer. Farmer won his belt last August and made his fourth defense against Frenois but really wants a bigger fight.
“I think he could have pressed and been more aggressive,” Farmer co-promoter Lou DiBella said.
But next up could be a more notable bout, according to DiBella.
“I spoke to DAZN and [Matchroom Boxing promoter] Eddie Hearn, and [Joseph] ‘JoJo’ Diaz is a fight I think we’ll look at doing,” DiBella said.
A unification fight with Gervonta Davis is far less likely, although Davis also retained his 130-pound belt on Saturday, knocking out mandatory challenger Ricardo Nunez in Davis’ hometown of Baltimore and then calling Farmer out.
“It can be made,” Farmer said of a fight with Davis. “He says he wants me. Gervonta says he wants Tevin, then [Davis promoter Leonard] Ellerbe [of Mayweather Promotions] says something else. I’m moving forward from that fight. If I can’t get that fight, give me JoJo Diaz.”
Farmer (30-4-1, 6 KOs), 28, a southpaw from Philadelphia, was quick with his jab, landing shots on the inside before Frenois could respond and avoiding most of the punches he did get off with his speed and head movement. Frenois landed some bigger shots later in the fight, but Farmer was never in any trouble.
Frenois (46-2-1, 12 KOs), 35, of France, mounted occasional bursts in which he moved forward and let his hands go, but the majority of his biggest punches missed as Farmer returned fire with his jab and a few body shots. In the sixth round, Farmer was warned for a low blow. Later in the round, Frenois forced him to a corner and unleashed numerous punches, but Farmer made him miss almost all of them except for a couple that bounced off his gloves or shoulders. Throughout the fight, Frenois had problems landing anything solid.
In the 10th round, Farmer landed a low blow, and referee Mark Calo-oy docked him one point, but it hardly mattered in the final tally. According to CompuBox data, Farmer landed 167 of 636 punches (26%). Frenois landed 75 of 425 (18%) of his punches and landed double-digit blows in only two rounds.
Williams grinds past Vicente
Junior featherweight Tramaine Williams, known as “The Mighty Midget,” outfought Yenifel Vicente in a tough, grinding fight to win two vacant regional title belts and move closer to a shot at a world title. Vicente had his 10-fight winning streak snapped.
They spent long stretches working on the inside and firing body shots, several of which strayed low for both fighters, for which they were warned by referee Laurence Cole. The faster Williams beat Vicente to the punch often with combinations, but low blows continued to be an issue throughout. In the sixth round, Vicente laded two in a row but was not warned. When he strayed low later in the round, Cole finally took one point from him.
When Vicente (35-4-2, 27 KOs), 33, a Miami-based Dominican Republic native, landed a very low blow in the seventh round, Cole took another point from him and gave Williams time to recover. When the round resumed, they traded toe to toe with a left hand hurting Vicente during an extended exchange.
“B-minus, C — I could have done better, always could do better,” Williams said in grading his performance. “Usually, having fun means you did a good job. He could see me having fun, so he was pushing my head low and hitting me low.”
Williams (19-0, 6 KOs), 26, a southpaw from New Haven, Connecticut, put on a show late in the eighth round when he made Vicente miss numerous punches as he moved and dodged in what looked like an imitation of the prime Whitaker as the crowd cheered.
According to CompuBox, Williams landed 187 of 566 punches (33%) and Vicente connected with 116 of 549 (21%).
Dawejko outpoints Hernandez
Heavyweight Joey “The Tank” Dawejko ended a three-fight losing skid and gained revenge for a past draw against Rodney Hernandez with a unanimous decision victory. The judges had it 98-92, 96-94 and 96-94 in his favor.
Dawejko, 29, of Philadelphia, came in having lost three 10-round decisions in a row to good competition in Sergey Kuzmin, Andrey Fedosov and former world title challenger Bryant Jennings, but he did not have many issues with Hernandez in a slow-paced fight.
Dawejko (20-7-4, 11 KOs), who was one of Anthony Joshua’s chief sparring partners ahead of losing his unified title in a massive June 1 upset to Andy Ruiz Jr., was originally supposed to face former unified cruiserweight world titlist Murat Gassiev in Gassiev’s heavyweight debut. However, Gassiev suffered a shoulder injury and dropped off the card.
Matchroom Boxing kept Dawejko on the card and, on short notice, made a rematch between him and Hernandez (13-8-2, 4 KOs), 30, of Modesto, California. They had fought to an action-packed and bloody draw in an eight-rounder in April 2017. The rematch did not resemble the action of that bout, but Dawejko did enough to win most of the rounds with his cleaner punches.
“I did enough to win. He was running from me, so it was hard. That dude can fight,” Dawejko said. “I wasn’t expecting that. Last time, he brought it and we banged it out.”
Dawejko likely will get the chance to fight Gassiev when he returns from injury later this year.
“It was a last-minute opponent, and I was training for Gassiev. I still want that fight,” Dawejko said. “I’m definitely ready for bigger names.”
Hernandez’s best moment came in the sixth round when he trapped Dawejko in a corner and fired several punches — connecting with a left hook to the jaw that sent Dawejko on the run, and then holding on when Hernandez got to him again. Dawejko recovered quickly, and the bout settled back into more sporadic action.
Also on the undercard
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Middleweight prospect Austin “Ammo” Williams (3-0, 3 KOs), 23, a southpaw from Houston, blitzed Jabrandon Harris (0-3), 28, of Bryan, Texas, in a first-round-knockout victory.
Williams, who turned pro in April, put Harris away with a big left hand to the body. Harris, who believed he suffered a broken rib from the knockout punch, dropped to all fours, and referee Robert Chapa counted him out at 1 minute, 51 seconds.
“I hit him pretty hard. I knew that when I landed the shot that it would be the end of the fight,” Williams said. “I knew it right then, and I like it because I’m getting more experience as a fighter. I’ve been in the gym with guys who you can hit 1,000 times in the head and it doesn’t do anything, but you go downstairs and it’s glass.”
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Middleweight prospect “White Chocolate” Nikita Ababiy (6-0, 5 KOs), 20, of Brooklyn, New York, was forced to the distance for the first time in an extremely difficult and action-packed fight against Yunier Calzada (6-6-1, 1 KO), 30, of Houston, in which both got nailed with many punches. In the end, however, Ababiy, who entered the fight under the weather, got the nod 60-54 on all three scorecards, although Calzada probably deserved to win at least two rounds.
“I was never hurt. I didn’t feel [the punches], but it was my fault,” Ababiy said of his lackluster showing. “I didn’t listen to my corner. But I got six rounds in, first time going six as a professional. You have to learn someday. I learned that I have a lot to improve.”
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Toronto-based junior welterweight Arthur “The Chechen Wolf” Biyarslanov (4-0, 4 KOs), a 24-year-old southpaw, stopped Solon Staley (1-4, 0 KOs), 35, of Colombia, South Carolina, in the third round. It was a spirited fight in which Staley took punishment but never stopped trying and rattled Biyarslanov late in the first round. But it was mostly controlled by Biyarslanov, who landed an assortment of head and body shots nonstop throughout the bout. In the third round, he hurt Staley with a body shot and then unloaded several clean punches upstairs, including a massive left hand that forced the referee to intervene at 1 minute, 18 seconds.
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In an all-Dallas middleweight fight, Darius Bagley (1-0), 31, outpointed Carlos Dixon (1-14-1, 1 KO), 43, winning 39-37 on all three scorecards.