There is no clear leader amongst the current top crop of lightweights, according to former IBF super featherweight champion Tevin Farmer 30-5-1 (6).
But there is one clear standout when it comes to skill alone.
The 135-pound division is stacked with talent with undisputed champion Teofimo ‘The Takeover’ Lopez 16-0 (12) at the top of the heap after his October win over pound-for-pound level fighter Vasiliy Lomachenko 14-2 (10). Hot on his heels are the undefeated trio of Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis 24-0 (23), Ryan ‘KingRy’ Garcia 21-0 (18) and Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney 25-0 (15).
Southpaw Farmer, who lost his world title strap to JoJo Diaz 31-1-1 (15) by close unanimous decision in January last year, says there is nothing to split in the leading boxers in the suddenly red-hot division.
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“I feel like nobody holds the top position; I feel like all of them are kind of equal,” Farmer said to FightHub. “I feel like nobody at 135 has done enough yet to call themselves ‘Top Dog.’
“Even though Teofimo [Lopez] beat Loma, there are still questions there. So we need to see him beat another top dog or one of the other guys beat a top dog because you can’t really say who’s top because they’re all very good fighters.
“They can all fight. Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis, Teofimo, Devin Haney, all of those dudes are up there. They can rumble, but I feel like none of them did enough at that weight to dictate who’s the top.
“If you want to go off of who they fought, you have to give it to Teofimo if you want to go off of who they fought.
“You have to. But that doesn’t mean he’s the best, and it doesn’t mean he’ll beat all the other guys. It just says he’s the top dog because he [Teofimo] beat the top dog, and that was Lomachenko. You can’t take that away from him.”
As for the most talented fighter based on skills and athleticism, Farmer has his thoughts.
“It’s hard,” he admitted. “I don’t know, any one of them, they still have more to do at that weight, so it’s hard to rank them at that weight.
“The most talented is probably Devin Haney. I think he’s a more well-rounded fighter than a lot of them.
“All of them are still great, as I say. They’re all great fighters. But if you ask me who I think is more talented, I say Devin Haney. He’s got the most skills, but does that mean he can beat them?
“He may or he may not, but he has the most skills up there because I know a lot of talented fighters that lost to non-talented fighters. But Devin Haney, I feel he’s the most skilled at 135 and in time, it’ll prove who’s the best at 135.”
Farmer is expecting a round-robin to take place at lightweight, although he admits he can’t see Lopez sticking around at the weight class for long.
“They’re going to have to see each other one way or another,” he said. “I don’t know if Teofimo is going to be there for long, though.”
The fight that Farmer can see Lopez taking is against the winner of the four-belt unification bout between IBF and WBA junior welterweight champion Josh ‘The Tartan Tornado’ Taylor 17-0 (13) and WBC and WBO champion Jose Carlos Ramirez 26-0 (17) in Las Vegas on May 22.
“It’s a good fight for him,” Farmer said. “I mean, I would move up and I would take a tune-up fight if I were him at 140, to see how he reacts, and then I would go straight for the big dogs.
“Taylor would be more difficult because he’s really slick; he’s naturally bigger. We don’t know if Teofimo’s power can carry over to the big dogs, which I think it can. So there are a lot of questions.”
