The IBF has ordered a pair of title eliminators, one in the junior welterweight division and the other five pounds north at lightweight. At 130 lbs, Tevin Farmer and Francisco Fonceca have been ordered to fight for the right to meet Gervonta Davis while Richard Commey and Alejandro Luna have been directed to do the same for a crack at Robert Easter Jr at 135 lbs.
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Ghana’s Richard Commey (25-2, 22 KOs, S8C #11) will be hoping to earn a rematch with Easter Jr here. They first met last September in what was an excellent, very close fight in which Easter had to win the last couple rounds to escape with the decision. Following that fight Commey was put in another eliminator. He again extremely narrowly lost on the road, this time to Denis Shafikov in Russia. Most recently, Commey won a twelve round decision over Belgian based, Euro-level Hedi Slimani in March.
Alejandro Luna (22-0, 15 KOs, S8C #19) is a 25 year old PBC prospect who has been a mainstay on their undercards since PBC began a couple years back. His competition has been weak, but he did step up to meet former Russian world title challenger Andriy Klimov in his most recent bout. That fight was in April and Luna won by comfortable decision, setting himself up for this world level opportunity. Commey is a huge step up for Luna though.
At junior lightweight, Philadelphia’s drastically underrated Tevin Farmer (25-4-1, 5 KOs, S8C #13) will look to extend his 18 fight winning steak and earn his first title shot against Francisco Fonseca (19-0-1, 13 KOs). Fonseca is a complete unknown who has fought absolutely no one to deserve a fight like this, but the sanctioning bodies order random fights like this all the time. He holds one of the IBF’s minor titles and this opportunity is why fighters pay the fees to fight for those. Farmer, who has made himself a real contender about as quietly as anyone can in the internet age, is a landslide favorite here. Yet, just because Fonseca has not fought at this level doesn’t necessarily mean he can’t. We will see.
Farmer has an army injury from his April bout that needs to heal, but otherwise I do not foresee any promotional or matchmaking issues that would stop either of these eliminators from going through. I will report back when we have dates and venues.
