IBF super featherweight titleholder Tevin Farmer isn’t fighting this weekend, but he’s in Las Vegas and had a confrontation with Joseph Diaz Jr, who does fight Saturday.
Marcos Villegas caught up with Farmer after and got his thoughts on that situation.
On the altercation with Joseph Diaz Jr
“He was poppin’ shit on social media, so I seen him over there with the green hair and he tried to be my friend. No, we ain’t gonna be friends. ... It’s how we do it in the streets. If you poppin’ and I see you, I’m gonna come walk down on you. You gotta keep the same energy, the energy was different today. He started getting hyped at the end, but the energy was different. He knew.”
“Listen, it’s one thing to call somebody out. ... Everybody wants what you got when you’re champ, that’s one thing. But when you be disrespectful, that’s a whole different outlook. ... Just sayin’ little different shit outside of boxing. If this is the sport of boxing, let’s keep it boxing, let’s keep it where it’s at. Anything outside of boxing, then it’s disrespect.”
On Diaz saying Farmer has avoided him
“Fuck outta here. He wants that paycheck, that’s what he wants. When I was down and out, I wouldn’t say I was broke, but I was broke compared to boxing money — nobody wanted to give me a shot, nobody, managers, promoters, nobody. I grind my way up to get with the top promoters, I managed myself ... I grind so hard to get to this point, now dudes want to start calling me out. But none of y’all gave me a shot. Golden Boy didn’t give me a fuckin’ shot. I reached out to Golden Boy, I reached out to fuckin’ Robert Diaz, I got fuckin’ emails with him, all these dudes. Nobody gave me a shot! Now you motherfuckers wanna pop fly and do all this — c’mon, man, you ain’t gettin’ no shot, you’re gonna get a shot when I say you get a shot.”
On when Diaz will get a shot
“Maybe never. Be number one. I had to fight for a mandatory. I was in the rankings for a while. I had to fight to be mandatory. Their favorite line was, ‘What do we gain from fighting Tevin Farmer?’ Because I could fight. Now I get a belt — I’m gonna let these dudes starve like they let me starve. I was starvin’, I’m gonna let them starve.”
On his beef with Gervonta Davis
“I fell back from that because the fight’s not happening. I wanted the fight to happen, Davis said he wanted the fight to happen, but for some reason, it’s not happening. Me, Eddie (Hearn), Lou DiBella always talk about this — we’d have gone to Showtime if we had to to fight him. But it’s not happening so I’m not gonna put no more energy into that.
“There’s up-and-coming fighters gunning for my spot, there’s fighters at my level gunning for my spot, there’s other fights to focus on right now. He’s not gonna make or break my career, I’m not gonna make or break his career. When that fight happens, it happens.”
“At this time we’re going to fight mandatories and fight who we want to fight. We will dictate how we want to do it. Same way these dudes dictated to me, I’m gonna dictate to these dudes. After my mandatory, we’re gonna fight who we want to fight.”
On his next fight
“July. Not sure on the (exact) date yet, but we’re gonna do July. I’m gonna talk to Eddie and Lou next week.”
Check out the video for much more from Farmer.