BOSTON — Tevin Farmer, with a massive speed and skill advantage, retained his junior lightweight world title for the first time with a one-sided, fifth-round destruction of James Tennyson on the Demetrius Andrade-Walter Kautondokwa undercard Saturday night at TD Garden.
Farmer found a home early and often for his left hand, while Tennyson missed many wide, slow punches. Tennyson tried to get on the inside and throw uppercuts but didn’t land anything clean against Farmer’s tight defense and movement.
“I’m the best fighter in the world. I haven’t proved it yet but watch,” Farmer said. “I can’t even explain it. It’s unexplainable. I’m not even supposed to be here today. I lost four of my first 12 fights. Most people would have gave up but I stuck to it. You just have to keep grinding and believe in yourself and listen to your team. I have a big family support system and they support me to the death and that’s why I’m as good as I am and I fight for them.”
Farmer (27-4-1, 6 KOs), 28, a southpaw from Philadelphia, nailed Tennyson with a left to the ribs in the fourth round that sent him to the canvas. He got up quickly, but Farmer continued to land punches and befuddle him.
In the fifth round, Farmer landed another hard left hand to the ribs that badly buckled Tennyson (22-3, 18 KOs), 25, of Northern Ireland, but he stayed upright. However, seconds later Farmer landed yet another bomb to his ribs and Tennyson fell again, and referee Arthur Mercante waved off the fight at 1 minute, 44 seconds.
“We put together a game plan and I executed it,” Farmer said. “The game plan was to work everything behind the jab, stay patient. I’ve been in a lot of tough fights, he hasn’t. Me and my camp knew I could punch. I knocked someone out before they knocked me out, so who’s the puncher?”
The fight was Farmer’s first since he traveled to Billy Dib’s home country of Australia and outpointed him Aug. 3 to win the vacant 130-pound belt and then, along with promoter Lou DiBella, signed a co-promotional deal with Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn, who was recruiting fighters to stock the cards he would be putting on as part of his eight-year, $1 billion deal with new streaming service DAZN.
Because Farmer dismissed Tennyson with such ease and took no damage, there’s a chance he will be back Dec. 15 on the undercard of the Canelo Alvarez-Rocky Fielding fight at New York’s Madison Square Garden, according to Farmer co-promoters Lou DiBella and Eddie Hearn, who is also Fielding’s promoter and will have slots on the Golden Boy Promotions card.
“Tevin was patient and kept taking the body against a long, lean guy,” DiBella said. “He had a great game plan and I think he can be ready by December, so I will talk to Eddie about it. I’m very happy with the performance.”
According to CompuBox statistics, Farmer landed 103 of 315 punches (33 percent) and Tennyson landed 45 of 268 (17 percent).
As for what’s next, Farmer and titleholder Gervonta Davis have been going back and forth with each other on social media, and each wants the fight. Davis is signed to Mayweather Promotions, and Hearn said he has made offers that would pay Davis far more than he has ever made, but Mayweather Promotions has been reluctant to make a deal.
“I want everybody with a belt. I don’t care who it is, but I have one particular guy I want: Gervonta Davis,” Farmer said. “Everyone’s like, ‘Why you not fighting, why you not fighting?’ Gervonta wants to fight. Everybody wants the fight. Now I got the belt, we got the money, and we got the venues. Let’s get it Davis already. Let’s go!”
Taylor routs Serrano
With Irish countryman and UFC star Conor McGregor cheering her on at ringside, unified women’s lightweight world titlist Katie Taylor shut out Cindy Serrano in a lackluster fight.
Taylor was quicker and beat Serrano to the punch time and again. She put combinations together and Serrano could never get her offense going in a fight that lacked action and suspense.
Taylor (11-0, 5 KOs), 32, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist for Ireland, retained her title for the fourth time against an experienced but smaller opponent in Serrano (27-6-3, 10 KOs), 36, of Brooklyn, New York, a former featherweight world titleholder and sister of five-division world titlist Amanda Serrano.
Taylor landed a few solid right hands and body shots in the ninth round that seemed to sap the fading Serrano of what little energy she seemed to have left. Taylor continued to attack Serrano in the 10th round in an effort to close the show with a knockout, but she had to settle for the one-sided rout.
Galahad outclasses Kahn Clary
England’s Kid Galahad rolled to a one-sided decision against Toka Kahn Clary in a featherweight elimination bout to earn an mandatory world title fight against the winner of the Dec. 22 fight between titlist Josh Warrington and former titleholder Carl Frampton.
Galahad won 118-110, 118-110 and 115-113. ESPN.com also had Galahad winning 118-110.
“I want the winner of Carl Frampton and Josh Warrington. I see [Warrington’s] manager somewhere around here hiding, trying to watch. That’s what I want next,” Galahad said.
Galahad (25-0, 15 KOs), 28, regularly beat Kahn Clary to the punch, jabbed well and forced him to tie up.
Kahn Clary (25-2, 17 KOs), 26, a southpaw from Providence, Rhode Island, didn’t have his usual energy or zip on his punches, perhaps because he struggled badly to make weight at Saturday morning’s IBF weight check, where a fighter cannot gain more than 10 pounds following Friday’s weigh-in. He needed extra time to make it.
While Galahad was way more active, Kahn Clary was content to throw one punch at a time in an ugly fight. There were stretches where Galahad would fire several punches with Kahn Clary offering nothing in return.
“I tip my hat to him because he was an absolute warrior. He took some heavy shots and kept on coming,” Galahad said. “Toka is from an unbelievable amateur pedigree … but the pro ranks is a different game. I knew his pedigree. I knew it was going to be a tough night. If you see me in the ring, all the way until the 12th round, I was trying to take him out. That’s what I do.”
Quigg destroys Briones
Former junior featherweight world titleholder Scott Quigg (35-2-2, 26 KOs), 30, of England, mowed down Mario Briones (29-8-2, 21 KOs), 32, of Mexico, in easy fashion, stopping him with an onslaught of punches in the second round of their scheduled eight-round junior lightweight bout.
Quigg, with Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach in his corner, was fighting for the first time since a hard-fought decision loss to featherweight world titlist Oscar Valdez in March in a fight-of-the-year candidate. Quigg failed to make weight for that fight and was not eligible to win the title; he moved up in weight for his return.
“It’s good to be back after a long layoff,” Quigg said. “If I were to come in here and won on points, I would have said I need to pack it in. I needed to go in and do a job like I just did. That’s what I expected from myself and I proved it to myself tonight that I’m still on the right road.
“Coming off a loss, people will find it difficult and at times, it was difficult. But I don’t take it as a loss. I take it as a learning curve. That’s why we went back to the gym and worked on what we needed to work on. Losing to Valdez highlighted what we needed to work on.”
In the second round, Quigg did damage when he rocked Briones with right hands and an uppercut. That forced Briones into the ropes, and Quigg blasted him with rights and lefts to the head — six unanswered punches in a row — that had Briones out on his feet, forcing referee Gene Del Bianco to intervene at 1 minute, 12 seconds.
“His accuracy was very good. We’re ready for another title fight,” Roach said.
Also on the undercard
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Junior welterweight Tommy Coyle (25-4, 12 KOs), 29, of England, won a grueling decision against Ryan Kielczweski (29-4, 11 KOs), 29, of Quincy, Massachusetts, via scores of 99-90, 98-91 and 96-93. It was an action-packed fight, but the bigger, stronger Coyle landed the heavier punches, including in the seventh round, when a right hand wobbled Kielczweski. Coyle followed with a left that dropped him.
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Junior middleweight Mark DeLuca (22-1, 13 KOs) exacted revenge against Walter Wright (17-5, 8 KOs) by winning a unanimous decision 97-93, 96-94 and 96-94. DeLuca, a 30-year-old southpaw from Whitman, Massachusetts, and the crowd favorite, lost a 12-round split decision to Seattle’s Wright, 37, a former participant on “The Contender” reality series, on June 23 in Gilford, New Hampshire.
The rematch was once again a close fight that began slowly and really heated up over the final few rounds. They traded fierce punches throughout the seventh round, when DeLuca knocked Wright’s mouthpiece out, and throughout the final couple of rounds.
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Welterweight Daniyar Yeleussinov (4-0, 2 KO), a 27-year-old southpaw, who was a 2016 Olympic gold medalist for Kazakhstan, plowed through Matt Doherty (8-6-1, 4 KOs), 30, of Salem, Massachusetts, for a first-round stoppage. Yeleussinov overwhelmed him with a series of hard lefts to the body to drive him back toward the ropes and then nailed him with a left uppercut that rocked him. As he continued to pour it on, referee Arthur Mercante stepped and stopped it at 2 minutes, 31 seconds. Doherty lost his third fight in a row, but it was the first time he has ever been stopped.
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Irish heavyweight Niall Kennedy (12-0-1, 7 KOs), 34, won a unanimous decision over Brendan Barrett (7-1-2, 5 KOs), 36, of Egg Harbor, New Jersey, in a brawl. The 6-foot-3 Kennedy, with a 4-inch height advantage, got the better of Barrett throughout the fight and won 60-53, 60-53 and 58-55. He dropped Barrett with a right hand in the fifth round.
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Welterweight Sean McComb (3-0, 3 KOs), 26, of Northern Ireland, knocked out Carlos Galindo (1-6, 0 KOs), 37, of Woburn, Massachusetts, at 2 minutes, 13 seconds of the third round.