Diaz decisions Farmer to become new IBF champ

in Miami Thursday night, Joseph “JoJo” Diaz finally got his chance to become champion the third time around, as he was able to outbox Tevin Farmer to become the new IBF champion at junior lightweight.

This bout was on a plethora of championship fights on this night streaming on DAZN in the United States, which followed history in the making, as Murodjon  Akhmadaliev won by split decision over unified Bantamweight champ Danny Roman.

The Heart of A Champion ? pic.twitter.com/sY9C7lszUW

— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) January 31, 2020

This fight went to the scorecards with scores of 116-112 and 115-113 twice for Diaz in a bout that on the broadcast wasn’t as close a the cards reflected. Still credit where it is due, they got the right man winning, which for Diaz makes five victories in a row since losing to Gary Russell Jr. back in 2018.

This fight had the potential of stopping, as soon as it started. After a feeling out first round, Farmer suffered an injury to his right hand but decided to continue on. Also, a clash of heads in the second round created a nasty gash over the left eye of Diaz.

One that by all accounts would’ve ruled this bout a no-contest. Instead Diaz amazingly continued and the cut (below) became a non-issue in the bout.

The best cut man performance I’ve ever seen. pic.twitter.com/8ksOa5K0tD

— Matthew Aguilar (@MatthewAguilar5) January 31, 2020

What happened in the fight from the third round saw Diaz being able to land successfully over the usually defensive focused Farmer. It seemed like when Farmer pressed, Diaz was able to land and when Farmer backed off, Diaz was able to land.

Also of note, something was bothering Farmer’s eye throughout the contest.

“I respect Tevin Farmer, he gave me this title shot,” Diaz said after the win, improving  to 31-1 (15KOs). “I know he’s gonna want a rematch and I’ll be more than happy to run it back.”

Farmer after the fight, gave no excuses afterwards despite what transpired over twelve rounds could’ve generated plenty.

“He put up a hell of a fight. No excuses,” said Farmer (31-4-1, 6KOs), ending his  17-month title reign.

“We definitely gonna (exercise) that immediate rematch clause,” mentioned Farmer after the fight to DAZN’s Chris Mannix.”Hopefully we can do it again in April or May. We gotta run it back but he put up a hell of fight.”

They’ll run this fight back as Farmer mentioned, but we’ll see how soon, as the cut over Diaz’s eye is going to take some time to heal.

Farmer was mentioning that he only had a few fights left at 130 lb. before moving up could likely do that once his team looks back at the film on this one.