Tevin Farmer looks like he will head towards a showdown with Jono Carroll after keeping hold of his world title.
The Philadelphia man successfully retained his IBF super-featherweight crown just eight weeks after tearing through James Tennyson.
Farmer took out Tennyson inside five rounds at the TD Garden in Boston back in October and looked pretty comfortable on Saturday night as he unanimously outpointed Francisco Fonseca.
The fight was at Madison Square Garden in New York, exclusively live on DAZN Stateside and on Sky Sports in the UK, as part of the supporting cast to Rocky Fielding’s third-round stoppage defeat at the hands of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
The champion, who beat Billy Dib to win the crown in August, was the busier, more accurate puncher of the two against the former world title challenger Fonseca.
And the three scoring judges at ringside all shared that view as they turned in identical tallies of 117-111 in favour of ‘American Idol’, who will now look to fight the aforementioned Carroll.
Carroll, the IBF Inter-Continental champion, drew in a final eliminator against Guillaume Frenois of France earlier this month at the FlyDSA Arena in Sheffield.
But it is understood that Carroll will be next in line and that the fight could take place in Farmer’s Philadelphia homeland on either March 16 or March 23, 2019.
Katie Taylor kept her world titles and her undefeated record with another straightforward win.
The Bray woman, 32, outpointed Eva Wahlstrom over 10 rounds on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
Taylor, who moved to 12-0 with five early finishes, won on all three scorecards against the Finn, who she had faced numerous times in the amateurs.
The three scoring judges turned in 100-90 scorecards in favour of the Olympic and current WBA and IBF female lightweight world champion.
“I thought it was a very good performance,” Taylor said afterwards. “[Wahlstrom is] obviously a fantastic champion and a great, great fighter. I knew it was going to be a great showcase for women’s boxing. It was such a privilege to fight here in Madison Square Garden in front of so many Irish people, so thank you so much for the support.”
A fight with Amanda Serrano, the Brooklyn WBO super-lightweight champion whose sister, Cindy, was beaten by Taylor earlier this year, is the next aim.
“The goal is to be the undisputed lightweight champion of the world,” Taylor said. “Obviously, one of the biggest fighters out there is Amanda Serrano, and that’s a huge, huge fight.”
Meanwhile, Ryan Garcia impressed as he debuted at the venue, dropping Braulio Rodriguez twice before stopping him in the fifth round.
The 20-year-old floored Rodriguez with a right-left combination in the first round and a left hook in the fifth round.
After the second knockdown, the referee Ron Lipton had seen enough and called a halt to proceedings after one minute and 14 seconds of round five.
Garcia advanced to 17-0 with 14 early and secured his first win under the tutelage of new trainers Eddy Reynoso and his dad Jose ‘Chepo’ Reynoso.
Sadam Ali returned to welterweight and won a rather drab, forgettable 10-round affair against Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Roach Jr. outworked Alberto Mercado and comfortably beat him in their 10-round junior super-featherweight clash.
Roach won a unanimous decision, as judges John Poturaj, Alan Rubinstein and Robin Taylor turned in tallies of 98-92, 97-93 and 99-91.
And Yves Ulysse Jr. continued his climb back towards title contention as he knocked down Max Becerra once in the sixth and seventh rounds en-route to an eight-round victory with scores of 79-71, 78-72 and 78-72.