By Ian S Palmer
The vacant IBF Super Featherweight title is on the line down in Redfern, Australia on Friday, August 3rd as local lad Billy Dip takes on American Tevin Farmer of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dib, a former IBF Featherweight Champion, was last in the ring in December when he beat Phum Kunmat via an eight-round unanimous decision. Farmer’s last outing was a 12-round unanimous decision loss to Kenichi Ogawa of Japan for the same vacant title, but the bout was later ruled a no contest after Ogawa failed a drug test. The fight can be seen live on ESPN+ in America and BoxNation in the UK and Ireland.
The veteran Dib is now 32 years old and has plenty of pro experience under his belt with 303 rounds boxed since turning pro back in 2004. Dib carries a record of 43-4 with him along with 24 Kos. He’s an underrated boxer, but has suffered two defeats at the hands of Evgeny Gradovich as well as losses to Takashi Miura and Steve Luevano. His first loss was to Luevano by 12-round unanimous decision back in 2008 he then dropped a split decision to Gradovich five years later to lose his IBF Featherweight Title and was stopped in the ninth round of their rematch eight months later.
Dib was also stopped by Miura in the third round in May of 2015.. Dib has good boxing skills and footwork along with decent hand speed. He needs to stay away from brawling and utilize his skills against Farmer though. He’s just over 5-feet-7-inches tall with a reach of 70.5 inches. Since turning pro after a fine amateur career of 98-15, Dib’s won the IBF Pan Pacific, Interim WBC Youth, IBF Pan Pacific Youth, IBO Super Featherweight, and IBO Asia Pacific Featherweight Titles as well as the IBO Asia Pacific and Australian Super Featherweight Title.
In addition, Dib also won the vacant IBF World Featherweight Title in July of 2007 by beating Jorge Lacierva by a unanimous decision. He defended it against Alberto Servidei by first-round stoppage and then stopped Eduardo Escobedo after six rounds before losing it on points to Gradovich. Dib has been stopped twice, but still has a pretty decent chin. As for his own power, he doesn’t really have a lot of it with a current knockout ratio of 49 per cent.
The 27-year-old Farmer suffered an upset when he originally dropped the decision to Ogawa last year and many fans and experts though he had done enough to win. That’s basically all academic now as he gets another shot at the title. Farmer’s 5-feet-6-inches tall with a 67-inch reach so gives up just over an inch in height to Dib as well as three inches in reach. Farmer had only 16 amateur fights and went 12-4 before turning pro in 2011, and he’s boxed 211 rounds since then. He enters the bout with a record of 25-4-1 with just 5 Kos to his name.
Farmer lost his pro debut as he was stopped in four rounds by Oscar Santana and then dropped a four-round unanimous decision to Josh Bowles eight months later and drew Frank De Alba in his very next fight. Three fights later, Farmer lost an eight-round decision to Kamil Laszcyk and he was then stopped by Jose Pedraza in eight rounds in 2012. He didn’t give up though despite losing and drawing one of his first 12 fights and Farmer is now riding an 18-fight winning streak. He hasn’t fought many contenders though with his best wins being over Ivan Redkach, Emanuel Gonzalez and Gamaliel Diaz.
With a current knockout ratio of just 16 per cent it appears Farmer doesn’t have much at all in the way of power, but Dib can’t take him lightly because he has fine boxing skills and a lot of hand speed. He’s improved a lot over the years and his chin isn’t that bad. Farmer’s lost some points in his career though for bending the rules from time to time and isn’t averse to landing low blows. He’s now getting a second shot at proving his talent and needs to take advantage of it if he hopes to be a legitimate top-ranked super featherweight.
Prediction…
This is going to be a hard fight for Dib to win unless he can match Farmer’s speed, skills and punch output. He also has to be accurate and match him shot for shot. Dib is quite durable, but he’ll need to be at his best here. This should be a good fight between two skilled boxers, but I think Farmer’s got the edge physically, but perhaps not mentally. Still, I believe Farmer wins the fight.
