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by John DiSanto |
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Philly's Tevin Farmer capped his career-best year with an impressive TKO of tough Carlos Vinan Wednesday night at the Econ Lodge in Allentown, PA. Farmer used his trademark perpetual motion to outwork his more experienced opponent, and took every round of the fight until Vinan's corner finally called a halt to the one-sided battle after six full rounds of action. Farmer is not a hard puncher, but he landed so frequently and so cleanly on Vinan, that the stoppage was the correct move. The victory was Farmer's seventh bout of 2013 (7-0), and raised his overall record to 14-4-1 with 3 KOs.
The junior lightweight fight began with Farmer flurrying wildly as Vinan pressed forward. Before the round ended, a clash of heads left Vinan with a hairline nick that trickled blood down the middle of his forehead.
The battering continued through the third, fourth and fifth rounds. Farmer was warned for a low blow in round three, which pushed Vinan to fight harder the following round. The fourth was his best, but he still couldn't do enough to better Farmer's wilting output. Tevin picked up the pace in round five, throwing and landing his punches with more authority than in previous rounds. By the sixth, Farmer was landing hard and Vinan couldn't get out of the way. Carlos had certainly been in with harder punchers in his gritty career, but Farmer was landing with ease and dishing out a great deal of punishment.
Vinan easily made it out of the round, but there was no question that he was absorbing much punishment. When he returned to his corner, his team asked referee Shawn Clark to stop the fight. It was a smart and merciful decision. The stoppage entered the books as a 6th round TKO at 3:00.
Vinan's record slid to 10-12-5, 2 KOs. It was his third consecutive loss. Last year, Farmer showed real promise with his win over Tim Witherspoon Jr., but lost twice and went 4-2 for the year. Clearly he worked hard in 2013 and has shown himself to be a very good - and busy - local prospect. I can't wait to see what's is in store for him next year.
The 6-round semi-windup bout featured former world champion Kassim Ouma returning to the ring after 30 months of inactivity. His opponent was Rahman Yusubov of Dallas, TX.
He swept the final three rounds of the middleweight fight, surging as Yusubov tired. However, Ouma still took too many shots down the stretch. It wasn't a factor in this fight, but clearly may be when his competition steps back up a level. After six rounds, all three judges, Pierre Benoist, Bernard Bruni and Michael Somma, had Ouma ahead 59-55. I gave Yusubov two rounds (3 & 4), and scored the bout 58-56.
Living up to his nickname of "Tony the Tiger", Philadelphia featherweight Antonio DuBose wrapped his rookie season with an explosion of power against Jesus Gonzalez. DuBose dropped his opponent three times in the opening round to post his third straight win. It was a brisk and impressive victory. DuBose is one of the top rookies of 2013, and certainly will vie for the Briscoe Award in that category (along with Damon Allen and Emmanuel Folley). He closes 2013 with a record of 3-0, 2 KOs. New Yorker Gonzalez left 1-4, 1 KO.
Heavyweight John Lennox, Carteret, NJ, (above right) edged past Kevin Franklin, Charleston, WV, in their 6-round bout. Lennox clearly had the better skills but his poor conditioning had him sucking air as early as round two. Franklin tried to take advantage of Lennox's fatigue, winning rounds three and four on my card, before tiring a bit himself. With his back against the wall, the NJ fighter managed to pull out the win in the final two rounds of the fight. However, each round was close, and the smell of upset was in the air. As it turned out, the three official judges almost went there, but not quite. Judge Bernard Bruni scored the fight 59-55 for Franklin, but was overruled by judges Pierre Benoist (59-55) and Michael Somma (58-56). Lennox won his third straight and improved to 13-2, 5 KOs. Franklin extended his hard luck slide to five in a row, falling to 4-9, 1 KO.
Belfast welterweight Tyrone McKenna remained undefeated in the opening fight of the night, winning a unanimous 4-round decision over Jeffery Combs of St. Louis. McKenna showed excellent combination punching and finished the bout strong to secure the convincing win. All three judges had him the winner. Both Pierre Benoist and Bernard Bruni scored the fight a 40-36 shutout, while Michael Somma gave Combs a single round for a 39-37 score. A small crowd of approximately 200 fans attended the Wednesday evening show, which was promoted by Jay Newman of VIP Fighting Events.
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In
round two, Farmer picked up where he left the round before.
From his southpaw stance, Tevin shot his right jab straight
into Vinan's face, and fired his straight left, over and
over again. Farmer continued to pile up points, landing his
shots from every angle. 
Ouma
looked rusty and seemed to be unable to get out of the way
of Yusubov's incoming punches. However, this dry, smokeless
and sober version of Ouma still did enough to win the fight.
Yusubov rallied in the middle rounds, but Ouma began shaking
off the rust and looked more fluid and engaged in round
four. 
