Your fighter Tevin Farmer recently lost a tight decision to Kenichi Ogawa. Can you give us your thoughts on what happened?
I thought Tevin got robbed badly. I thought it was terrible judging. I feel horrible for Tevin. This is a kid who really had to get there the hard way. He started off 7-4-1. He struggled to get himself to 25-4-1. He earned that title opportunity. And he landed the more telling shots, not only more of them.
Expecting Tevin Farmer to be Orlando Salido, Mickey Ward or Arturo Gatti is foolish. That’s not who he is. I listened to an interview with Joel Diaz, who I think is a great trainer and someone I really like, and he said he thought Tevin won the fight, but part of the problem was, he was fighting on a “Mexican” card, where you had guys like Salido slugging it out. Tevin is a more technical style of boxing. And he was victimized by being on that kind of card. If that’s the case, that’s not right either. It was my mother’s 84th birthday, so I wasn’t in Las Vegas that night. I watched it without the sound, which is what I like to do. I scored it the same way as Harold Lederman and the HBO commentators: Nine rounds for Tevin.
This was just an awful decision in a year that was filled with awful decisions. Gennady Golovkin beat Canelo Alvarez, I don’t give a sh*t what anybody says. And there were many fights like that this year. A good look needs to be taken at judges with consistently controversial or bad scorecards and there has to be a better system of judging the judges. The overwhelming majority of people thought Tevin Farmer won that fight. But in the record books, it’s recorded as a loss. And when it comes down to who gets the big-money fights and so forth, being champion is a very big thing. These losses make a significant impact on their lives. If there’s real justice, there should be a rematch. But I don’t think the IBF is going to order a rematch. I love the IBF, they follow their own rules and are a good organization, but I urge people to contact the IBF. Send an email and let them know that Tevin got robbed. Reach out to them on Twitter at @ibfusba.
Regis Prograis is one of the more talented up and comer in the sport today. What’s on the agenda for him going forward?
A deal has been struck with the WBC where Jose Carlos Ramirez will fight Amir Imam for the vacant 140lbs title. Regis will fight Victor Postol for an interim title. The basis of the agreement that allowed this to happen—because Regis is rated higher than Ramirez—the winners of these two fights will meet and the champion and the interim champ will stand on equal ground, a 50-50 deal. That was the deal reached with the WBC at their convention. We’re currently in the processing of negotiating with Postol’s people, and I believe that fight will be on Showtime.
You also recently signed Richard Commey.
Yes, we’re really excited about him. Richard and Alejandro Luna will fight on February 10. Luna has accepted the fight and it will be an IBF world title eliminator. Richard has already proven himself. He could easily be a world champion now. His fight with Robert Easter Jr. could have easily been a decision in his favour and I think the world of Easter. And anyone who saw the Denis Shafikov fight knows he got shafted.
For a full interview with Lou DiBella on Eddie Hearn, Anthony Joshua and more don’t miss this week’s issue of Boxing News magazine
