The commentators had to apologise for the industrial language in the corner on more than one occasion and that pretty much summed up the kind of fight Tevin Farmer vs. Jono Carroll was.
There was no love lost between the vocal rivals going into the main event on Friday night, when Farmer successfully defended his IBF super featherweight title against Ireland’s Carroll.
Farmer ultimately proved to be a level above Carroll in terms of quality but that takes nothing away from Carroll’s performance, with not a backward step taken by the Dublin-born, Dunshaughlin-raised fighter.
Carroll came ready to put on an aggressive show and his gameplan was clear from the outset as he continued to pour pressure on the defending champion but it was Farmer’s superior technique that resulted in him defending his title in front of his hometown fans.
There were stages when it looked like Carroll would not survive the 12 rounds, having sustained a brutal beating for large portions of his first crack at a world title but nobody inside the Liacouras Centre would have argued against the fact that Carroll deserved to hear the final bell.
Carroll’s corner was given a massive decision to make following the 11th round, when the Irishman looked out on his feet but somehow he bit down on his gumshield and survived Farmer’s clinical onslaught to hear the judges’ scorecards, which were 117-110, 117-111 one 117-111 in favour of the American.
Friday night’s defeat was the first endured by Carroll in his professional career and while he lost by a quite clear margin, he won plenty of fans with his determination to fight on the front foot and his refusal to give in when lesser fighters would have folded.
Carroll left everything he had in the ring and deserved every single cheer he received when he drank in the fans’ applause after what turned out to be an absolute war in Philly.
