All the pressure was on lightweight contender Raymond ‘Danger’ Muratalla 21-0 (16) in his fight against ex-IBF 130-pound ruler Tevin ‘The Dream’ Farmer 33-6-1 (8) in their 10-round bout at the Palms Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
The bout was intended to be the main support to the middleweight world title defence between WBO and IBF champion Janibek Alimkhanuly 15-0 (10) and Andrei Mikhailovich 21-0 (13) before the unified titleholder was forced to withdraw after fainting on Thursday while struggling to make weight.
Californian Muratalla, 27, was suddenly thrust into the spotlight. A strong showing against veteran southpaw Farmer, 33, from Philadelphia would provide a groundswell of support for a shot at one of the four major titleholders at 135-pounds.
Muratalla fell short of that, but he did get the win.
In the early rounds Farmer used his experience and savvy to frustrate Muratalla, picking him off from the outside and smothering while in close. But somewhere in the mid-rounds something clicked for Muratalla, who started to be able to fins a home for his heavy-handed shots.
The fight didn’t feature a lot of sustained, clean punching, but once Muratalla put aside his frustrations, he got the better of the action and finished the fight with all the momentum in his favour.
After Farmer was deducted a point in the eighth for excessive clinching, the judges ruled the bout a unanimous decision win for Muratalla by scores of 96-94, 96-93 and 97-92.
“I just had to keep applying the pressure,” said Muratalla. “He was moving around. He was holding. So I had to keep putting on the pressure. And we came out with the victory.
“I was just consistent with the pressure. I just kept putting it on. My team told me to keep putting it on. I was breaking him down round by round.”
Farmer didn’t disputed the result, but he felt the point deduction was entirely unnecessary.
“That point deduction was crazy,” said Farmer. “I feel like we were both holding. The times I tried to get out, he had my arm, so it looked like I was holding. So, he took the point. But it’s the ref. He makes the calls. So you have to take it on the chin.”
From Muratalla’s perspective, the scalp of Farmer is enough to warrant a world title shot in the very near future. He is ranked number two by the WBC and the WBO and number four by the IBF.
The WBO champion is Denys Berinchyk 19-0 (9), while the WBC boss is Shakur Stevenson 22-0 (10). The IBF kingpin is Vasiliy Lomachenko 18-3 (12).
“I want the champions next,” said Muratalla, before nominating his preferred opponent.
“Berinchyk called my name. I’m calling out his name right now. If I can’t get Berinchyk, then I want Shakur.”
