Since March of 2017 the city of “Brotherly Shove” has been without a world champion with Danny “Swift” Garcia’s loss to Keith “One Time” Thurman. That all became a thing of the past when Philly’s Tevin “American Idol” Farmer soundly defeated former IBF World Featherweight Champion Billy “The Kid” Dib, from Australian in his opponents home country for the IBF World Super Featherweight title by scores of 118-109, 119-108 and 120-107 scoring the lone knockdown in the fight!
Farmer was too fast a foot and hand for Dib, 43-5 (24), down under at Technology Park, in Sydney, Australia. Farmer, 26-4-1 (5), a southpaw had too many moves for Dib who announced his retirement after the fight.
Farmer, is trained by Raul “Chino” Rivas, assisted by Rashiem Jefferson and had his early career turned around when he signed with Mark Cipparone and of course had Rivas take over the training in camp in New Jersey. Currently Farmer is promoted by DiBella Entertainment.
Farmer was 3-2-1 when he defeated former heavyweight champion “Terrible” Tim Witherspoon’s son Tim Witherspoon, Jr., 6-1-1, in January of 2012. A questionable decision followed in his next fight to Polands Kamil Laszczyk, 7-0, for the WBO Youth Featherweight title in Atlantic City, NJ. Laszczyk is currently 24-0.
After several wins Farmer lost to future IBF World Super Featherweight champion Jose “Sniper” Pedroza, 10-0, of PR, now 24-1, and fighting the end of the month for the WBO World Lightweight title.
Farmer would go on to win eighteen straight fights. In his previous fight before taking the crown Friday he traveled to Las Vegas, NV, and lost a highly disputed decision to Japan’s Kenichi Ogawa, 22-1, for the vacant title that Farmer now owns. It has later been reversed into a No Contest. That fight was held in December of 2017.
A jubilant Farmer afterwards told his future opponents, if you want this title step up to the plate! Knowing this world champion personally I could say if anyone is deserving a title belt from Philly, Tevin Farmer is that person! Confident and likeable is how I would describe the “American Idol”!