RAYMOND Muratalla eventually worked out Tevin Farmer’s moves to win a 10-round unanimous decision in Las Vegas last night. The scores of 97-92 (David Sutherland), 96-93 (Steve Weisfeld) and 95-94 (Tim Cheatham) represented a contrasting yet fair range of judging outcomes.
Muratalla found the movement of southpaw Farmer difficult early but took over as the fight went on. Ray’s corner implored him to start at the body to slow down the former world champion from Philadelphia.
Farmer was deducted a point in round eight for holding, which was a critical moment in terms of Farmer’s mindset, if not in terms of the eventual scoring. Even though Tevin had been warned on and off for holding, the deduction by referee Thomas Taylor did seem a little out of the blue.
A big right hand in round 10 shook up Farmer, but he shook his head in disgust at the ref when Mr Taylor briefly enquired if he was hurt.
Muratalla is highly ranked by the WBO, WBC, and IBF organisations at lightweight. This win maintains those rankings as he considers his next move. Muratalla also won the vacant WBO NABO strap and successfully defended his NABF 135-pound title to further reinforce his standing as the team pick a route to move down.
The 27-year-old, nicknamed ‘Danger’, improved to 21-0 (16 KOs) and called for either WBO champion Denys Berinchyk or Shakur Stevenson. In every sense, the latter might be more difficult to pin down, as his contract with Muratalla’s promoters, Top Rank, has now expired.
As for 33-year-old Tevin Farmer, he fell to 33-6-1 (8 KOs) and arrived in the ring still trying to regain activity following a hefty layoff from 2020 to 2023.
In truth, the former IBF super-featherweight champion’s role in the sport is likely to be as a high-level, gut-check gatekeeper for Muratalla-types seeking to reach the next stage of their careers.
