In this video interview with Fight Hub TV, IBF junior lightweight champion Tevin Farmer discusses this weekend’s fight against Francisco Fonseca and, of course, when he and Gervonta Davis will ever meet in the ring. Check out some excerpts below with the full video interview above...
Farmer on how it feels to finally be a world champion:
“I mean, it’s good. I mean, I worked hard for it so it’s not a surprise to me. I knew I would always be here. It’s definitely a great feeling to be a world champion, but it’s a lot more to accomplish.”
On this weekend’s opponent in Fonseca and what statement he wants to make:
“I mean, I’ma go in there and fight him the way I fight him, you know, how I been fighting. My goal is to try to stop him in four. Four or less. I think I will.”
On Gervonta Davis having stopped Fonseca in eight rounds and if he’s trying to outdo him:
“This don’t have nothing to do with that guy. This has everything to do with me. My last opponent was tough. He said he was gonna knock me out, I knocked him out in five. So now I wanna do it in four or less. So it’s a goal against myself. I’m never competing with nobody else, I’m always competing with myself. The goal is to win the fight, but if I can stop him in four or less than that’ll be better because I stopped him quicker than I stopped my last opponent. That’s really the goal. But if I stop him in four and Tank stopped him in eight, oh well...”
On the much-talked-about fight with Gervonta Davis and Davis’ team saying they’ll make it on their terms:
“This is a question you have to ask Floyd [Mayweather]. This is a question that I shouldn’t be answering multiple, multiple times...You know my answer already. So it just becomes frustrating when it keeps being asked. I think Floyd Mayweather should answer this. Someone should take Floyd Mayweather, pull him to the side, and say ‘hey, when is Tevin Farmer and Tank Davis gonna fight?’
“Keep asking the fighters is not gonna do no justice because of course [Davis] says he want it, and everybody knows I want it so, it’s out of the question. You gotta ask Floyd. [Leonard] Ellerbe even said it himself...he said ‘we gonna fight Tevin Farmer when we want to fight him’ or whatever the case may be. Just read between the lines. I know you went to school, you know what reading between the lines means. Read between the lines, they want it when they want it, when it’s best for them. And we want it now.”
On why he thinks they don’t want to make that fight right now:
“It don’t really matter right now. This my third fight of the year, I’m making big, big, big money. So I don’t need him. I mean if anything he needs me. He need a paycheck, he hasn’t fought, he’s inactive, and I’m making money! So for me it’s like, oh, if I fight him, cool. If I don’t, I’ma still make XXXXXX dollars. So I don’t really care.”
On if not Davis, who he wants for a big fight:
“Whoever wanna fight the champion. I mean I’m the champion now, I ain’t doing too much calling out. What am I gonna do that for? I’m the champion. People gonna call me out, which they started to, and I just tell ‘em wait their turn. Wait your turn, it’s gonna happen. I mean, If I gotta go down the list of everybody in the IBF rankings, I’m gonna do that one by one...Whether its #1, #2 — I don’t have to fight #16 — I wanna fight the list on down. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 — whoever #1, that’s who I wanna fight.”
On when he thinks he’ll move up in weight:
“Whenever Tevin Farmer ready, whenever Tevin Farmer want to. I’m not letting nobody speed my process up, I’m not letting nobody slow it down, I’m moving at my pace and my pace is my pace. Nobody can do it for me, I don’t care who you is...”
On what’s a bigger fight for him, Vasyl Lomachenko or Gervonta Davis:
“Oh, absolutely Lomachenko. I mean, like, for the regular people — when it come to like people who don’t really watch boxing — [the Davis fight] bigger because it kinda got deeper than boxing because we ran into each other a couple times. He from Baltimore streets, I’m from Philly streets, I’m a black young fighter, he a black young fighter, so that’s that, in that aspect.
“But what would do more numbers, actually? I think me and Lomachenko. We two southpaws, we both slick, we both don’t get hit, so that actually would be the bigger fight and eventually me and Lomachenko will see each other, and that’s my friend, but you know, it’s business and I believe we the two top fighters between 130 and 135. And when we fight we’re gonna make history and we’re gonna make a lot of money and it’s gonna be a helluva fight.”
On what he made of Lomachenko’s most recent performance last week:
“People gonna say whatever. He could’ve look good and someone is always gonna have something bad to say about you. You know, styles make fights and Pedraza is no pushover, especially at 135.
“At 130 he started getting too big. He started getting too big for 130 so he was weak making the weight. He got offered a lot of money to fight Davis, to stay at the weight, and he was drained. He moved to ‘35, his natural weight, and he was strong, and Pedraza got great legs. He was able to move. When Lomachenko moved, he was able to move.”
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