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BOSTON -- In his first defense, junior lightweight world titlist Tevin Farmer polished off James Tennyson so easily in the fifth round on Saturday night at TD Garden that co-promoters Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing and Lou DiBella said Farmer could be back in the ring possibly as soon as December. Whether Farmer returns then, potentially on the undercard of the Canelo Alvarez-Rocky Fielding fight on Dec. 15 (DAZN) at Madison Square Garden in New York, or in early 2019, he knows exactly whom he wants to fight: fellow 130-pound world titlist Gervonta Davis. The two have traded trash-talk for months on social media, and it's a fight both claim to want. "Whoever my promoters put me in front of, I'm ready to get back in the ring ASAP," Farmer said. "I'm the champion. Who wants me? I am the big fight. [As for Davis], he has a lot of problems outside the ring he has to deal with. When he gets stuff right, then he comes out to us. "I want everybody with a belt. I don't care who it is, but I have one particular guy I want: Gervonta Davis. Everyone's like, 'Why you not fighting, why you not fighting?' Gervonta wants to fight. Everybody wants the fight. Now I got the belt, we got the money and we got the venues. Let's get Davis already. Let's go!" Farmer dominated Tennyson on the Demetrius Andrade-Walter Kautondokwa undercard, hurting him repeatedly with body shots and knocking him with punches to the ribs in the fourth and fifth rounds before the fight was waved off after the second knockdown. Hearn is gung-ho to make the all-southpaw fight between Farmer (27-4-1, 6 KOs), 28, of Philadelphia, and the Floyd Mayweather-promoted Davis (20-0, 19 KOs), 23, of Baltimore. "It's a natural fight. It's going to get bigger and bigger. It's a great unification fight," Hearn said. "We can only be in control of our own destiny. [Farmer] tells me when he wants to fight, and he gets a date immediately. That's a blessing for a fighter, and obviously Gervonta doesn't have that same blessing. He's letting his best years and his best times pass him by. "Realistically, summer of next year is when I'd like to see a unification fight with Gervonta Davis. It should be a super-fight in the U.S. We know that when that fight comes, Tevin will be in his groove, and the guys will have him absolutely firing on all cylinders ready for that fight." Hearn said he has made Mayweather Promotions an offer to co-promote Davis for three fights, which he claims would pay Davis by far his biggest purses. Hearn said that when Mayweather Promotions declined, he offered a one-fight deal for Davis for career-best money to fight on one of his DAZN-streamed cards against Farmer or any other opponent they could agree on. He was rebuffed. "I went back [to Mayweather Promotions] and said, 'Look, if you don't want to do a three-fight deal with me, do a one-fight deal.' The money is three times more than he's making at the moment," said Hearn, the No. 1 promoter in the United Kingdom. "America is a strange market. If that happened in the U.K. and the kid turned around and went, 'I want to take it,' you have no choice. In the U.S., the promoters seem to have much more power to be able to say, 'No, I'm not letting you' or 'You're not allowed to.' That's crazy. It might not suit Mayweather Promotions to upset their [broadcast] partner that will affect their other business by taking this deal. But how is that acting in the best interest of the fighter? "The fighter is on social media all day going, 'I can't get a date, I'm so unhappy. I boxed once this year.' He's probably the best young talent in the sport. He's boxed once this year. He's f---ing brilliant. They came straight back and said we're not interested." Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe could not be reached for comment. Hearn said he would continue to try to entice Mayweather Promotions to make a deal for Davis but said if that does not come about, he could match Farmer with England's Scott Quigg (35-2-2, 26 KOs), the former junior featherweight world titlist who moved from featherweight to junior lightweight on Saturday's undercard and knocked out Mario Briones in the second round. Davis, who has had numerous issues outside the ring, including a recent arrest in Washington, D.C., for a late-night street fight, was stripped of a junior lightweight world title in August 2017 for failing to make weight for a defense against Francisco Fonseca on the Mayweather-Conor McGregor undercard. He knocked out Fonseca in the eighth round. In his next fight, Davis made weight and won a vacant junior lightweight belt by third-round knockout of Jesus Cuellar on April 21 in Brooklyn, New York. But Davis has not boxed since and likely won't fight for the rest of the year. However, there has been talk of an early-2019 fight against former featherweight world titlist Abner Mares (31-3-1, 15 KOs) on a Premier Boxing Champions card on either Showtime or Fox, the two outlets where PBC has broadcast deals.
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