Tevin Farmer ordered by IBF to face Frenois

Dan Rafael of ESPN reported Saturday that, International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior lightweight world champion Tevin Farmer was ordered to begin negotiations with mandatory challenger Guillaume Frenois. Farmer was given an exception by the IBF to make a voluntary defense against Jono Carroll back on March 15 with the winner being forced to face Frenois next, on or before June 13. The IBF said in its letter to both parties that negotiations should be completed by May 7 or a purse bid will be ordered.

Farmer (29-4-1, 6 KOs) was successful by unanimous decision against Carroll back in March in his native Philadephia and now will make a defense against Frenois.

So when Tevin Farmer asked, “Who wants a shot?”, we know who and here is what you need to know about his next mandatory opponent, Guillaume Frenois.

Guillaume Frenois (46-1-1, 12 KOs) is a 35-year-old Frenchman who in his 48 professional bouts since 2006, has only been outside his native France four times, the latest, of course, being his last bout in which he battled to a split decision draw against Jono Carroll. With Farmer holding the belt residing in the city of Philadephia, Pennsylvania, and this bout being an ordered mandatory, barring some creative negations this will make for the southpaw hailing from Saint-Quentin, France making his first ever trip over to the United States. It will also be his first major title shot for Farmer’s title as he has held in France on several occasions the European Boxing Union (EBU) Super Featherweight title.

Fight date coming soon. I have a mandatory fight😤

— TEVIN FARMER (@TevinFarmer22) April 21, 2019

What I found interesting of Frenois when looking him up was the number of unanimous decisions he has amassed over his career. While not necessarily a power puncher which the twelve knockouts out of his forty-six wins would suggest, the other thirty-four wins he has gathered shown him being well ahead on the judge’s scorecards at the end of these bouts. In fact, before the draw to Carroll, he was on a winning streak of 15 straight bouts. Granted, the names in the course of that streak were household names like Ruddy Encarnacion, Alix Djavoiev and Nedim Kara. I mean, how can we all forget Nedim Kara?

His one victory of against an opponent I at least heard of was against Vyacheslav Gusev, who would also go on to lose to current featherweight titleholder Gary Russell Jr. back in 2013.

There isn’t much boxing tape of Frenois outside of the draw he had with Carroll and if that’s any inkling of what we’ll see against Farmer, this is just a fight being made in hopes of a megafight around the corner.